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M'FINGAL: 



^N" epic :poem. 



/ 



BY 



JOHN TRUMBULL 




I 



AVITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES, 



BY BENSON J. LOSSING, 
i 

AUTHOR OF "pictorial field book of the revolution," etc. 



33 



NEW YORK: 
G. P. PUTNAM, 115 NASSAU STREET. 

1860. 



% f 




f^ 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S57, by 

G. P. PUTNAM, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for 

the Southern District of New York. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The scenes and incidents of the old war for 
independence, known as the American Revolu- 
tion, furnished themes for contemplation and 
comment for every variety of minds, and evolved 
many brilliant sparks of genius which might 
otherwise have remained latent in the flint of 
common thought. "While the powers of highest 
statesmanship and military skill were demanded 
in the management of great public interests, 
there appeared much in the details of current 
events to excite mirth and provoke the keenest 
weapons of wit and satire to wonderful activity. 
Prudence generally commended anonymity to 
those who used the Press for the exercise of 
these weapons, at a time when there was an 
enemy in every bush. But such active men as 



4 Introduction. 

Paine, Hopkinson, Freneau, Trumbull, and others 
of less note, could not long wear the disguise so 
as effectually to conceal themselves, and they 
became objects of admiration for the Patriots, 
and of hatred for the Loyalists. 

Of all the literary productions of that day, 
having for its theme the character and doings 
of the men and times of the Revolution, the 
remarkable epic entitled M'Fingal is confess- 
edly most deserving of immortality. It holds 
an honorable place among works of highest 
poetic merit ; and as a satire, applied with scath- 
ing power to those who opposed the war, and 
were active in their loyalty to the king, it ex- 
hibits force rarely equalled, and never surpassed 
by its predecessors in that peculiar field. That 
force can be appreciated now, when almost 
three generations of men have passed away 
since the actors in the drama were upon the 
stage, only by a thorough knowledge of the 
point of each allusion, drawn from the charac- 
ter of the times, and familiarity with the social 
and political position of the victims of the keen 
Damascene blade of the satirist. 

The late Timothy Dwight, President of Yale 
College, who was a compatriot, a brother poet, 



Introduction. 5 

and a friend of the author, writing in long-after 
years, said : " It may be observed, without any 
partiality, that M'Fingal is not inferior in wit 
and humor to Hudibras ; and in every other re- 
spect is superior. It has a regular plan, in 
which all the parts are well proportioned and 
connected. The subject is fairly proposed, and 
the story conducted through a series of ad- 
vancements and retardations to a catastrophe, 
which is natural and complete. The versifica- 
tion is far better, the poetry is in several in- 
stances in a good degree elegant, and in some 
even sublime. It is also free from those endless 
digressions, which, notwithstanding the wit dis- 
covered in them, are so tedious in Hudibras ; 
the protuberances of which are a much larger 
mass than the body on which they grow." 

" The Hudibrastic body," says the Cyclopae- 
dia of American Literature, "is thoroughly 
interpenetrated by its American spirit. The 
illustrations, where there were the greatest 
temptations to plagiarism, are drawn from the 
writer's own biblical and classical reading, and 
the colloquial familiarities of the times. For 
the manners of the poem, there is no record of 
the period which supplies so vivid a presenta- 



6 Introduction. 

tion of the old Revolutionary Whig habits of 
thinking and acting. We are among the ac- 
tors of the day — the town committees, the yeo- 
manry, the politicians and soldiers, participating 
in the rough humors of the times ; for nothing 
is more characteristic of the struggle than a 
certain vein of pleasantry and hearty animal 
spirits which entered into it. Hardships were 
endured with fortitude, for which there was 
occasion enough, but the contest was carried 
on with wit as with other weapons." 

The purpose of the poem was explained by 
the author himself, in a letter to the Marquis de 
Chastellux, written in 1785. " It had been un- 
dertaken,'' he said, " at the instigation of some 
of the leading members of the first Congress, 
who urged him to compose a satirical poem on 
the events of the campaign in the year 1775 ; " 
and that he " had aimed at expressing, in a 
poetical manner, a general account of the 
American contest, with a particular description 
of the character and manners of the times, in- 
terspersed with anecdotes, which no history 
could probably record or display ; and where as 
much impartiality as possible, satirize the follies 
and extravagancies of his countrymen, as well as 



Introduction. 7 

of their enemies. I determined," he says, "to 
describe every subject in the manner it struck 
my own imagination, and without confining my- 
self to a perpetual effort at wit, drollery and 
humor, indulge every variety of manner, as my 
subject varied, and insert all the ridicule, satire, 
sense, sprightliness and elevation, of which I 
was master." How well this design was exe- 
cuted, the intelligent reader will discover. 

The first and second cantos of M'Fingal were 
published as one, in a thin pamphlet of forty 
pages, by William and Thomas Bradford, of 
Philadelphia. It was issued in the Autumn of 
1775, as Canto Z, or the Town-Meeting. In 
the course of the next year it was reprinted in 
London, where it passed through several 
editions, and was very popular with the anti- 
ministerial party in Great Britain and America. 
For a long time it was believed to be the pro- 
duction of some English scholar, and made a 
very favorable impression everywhere, on ac- 
count of its literary merits. As a political 
satire it was regarded as inimitable, and was 
praised by men of all parties. But when it was 
known that the author was a native of New 
England, the London press and loyal writers in 



8 Introduction. 

America, poured obloquy and contempt upon 
him in full measure. 

When the first part of M'Fingal was pub- 
lished, the author had sketched a plan for its 
extension, but he did not take it up again until 
the close of the war, when his friends urged him 
to complete it. He did so, by dividing the first 
half into two cantos, and adding two more. 
The whole work was printed and published by 
Hudson and Godwin at Hartford in Connecticut, 
before the close of 1782. Of that edition the 
one now offered to the public is a faithful tran- 
script. 

In the explanatory notes appended to the 
Poem in the present edition, the reader will 
find that full information which is necessary to 
a proper appreciation of the force of the satire. 

John Trumbull, the author of M'Fingal, was 
the child of a congregational minister. He was 
an only son, delicate in physical constitution, 
and a favorite of his accomplished mother. He 
was an exceedingly precocious child, and at the 
age of seven years was considered qualified to 
enter Yale College, as a student. There he 
was graduated, in 1*767, with the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts, and remained a student three 



Introduction. 9 

years longer. He turned his attention chiefly 
to polite literature, as well as the Greek and 
Latin classics, and became a most accomplished 
scholar. He and Timothy Dwight became in 
timate friends, and the bond of mutual attach- 
ment was severed only by death. They were 
co-essayists, in 1769; and, in 1771, they were 
both appointed tutors in the college. The fol- 
lowing year young Trumbull published the first 
part of a poem entitled The Progress of Dul- 
ness. He selected the law as his profession, 
and devoted much of his leisure time to its 
study. He was admitted to the bar in 1773, 
but immediately afterward went to Boston, and 
placed himself under the instructions of John 
Adams. While in Boston he wrote an Elegy 
on the Times, a poem in sixty-eight stanzas, 
which celebrated the Boston Port Bill, the 
non-importation associations, and the present 
strength and future glory of the country. He 
commenced the practice of law at Hartford, in 
1781, and soon became distinguished for legal 
acumen and forensic eloquence. As we have 
observed, his 3PFingal was completed, and 
published at Hartford in 1782. As authors 
were then unprotected by copyright laws, there 



io Introduction. 

were more than thirty different pirated impres- 
sions printed, and circulated by " newsmongers, 
hawkers, peddlers, and petty chapmen." 

Mr. Trumbull was soon afterward associated 
with Humphreys, Barlow, and Dr. Lemuel 
Hopkins, in the production of a work which 
they styled The Anarchiad. It contained bold 
satire, and exerted considerable influence on 
the popular taste. 

In 1789, Mr. Trumbull was appointed State 
Attorney for the county of Hartford ; and, hi 
1792, he represented that district in the Con- 
necticut legislature. His health failed ; and, in 
1795, he resigned his office, and declined all 
public business. Toward the close of 1798, a 
severe illness formed the crisis of his nervous 
excitement, and after that his health was much 
better. He was again elected to a seat in the 
State legislature in May, 1800, and the follow- 
ing year he was appointed a judge of the Su- 
perior Court of Connecticut. From that time 
he abandoned party politics, as inconsistent 
with judicial duties. In 1808, he was ap- 
pointed judge of the Supreme Court of Errors, 
in which office he remained several years. In 
the year 1805, Woodruff and Periam printed an 



Introduction. ii 

edition of M'Fingal at Elizabethtown, in New 
Jersey, by permission of the author. In 1820, 
he revised his works, and they were published 
in Hartford, in handsome style, by Samuel G. 
Goodrich, from whom the author received the 
handsome compensation of one thousand dol- 
lars. 

Judge Trumbull and his wife went to De- 
troit in 1825, and made their abode with their 
daughter, Mrs. Woodbridge, where he died of 
gradual decay, on the 10th of May, 1831, at 
the age of eighty-one years. 



V 



M'FINGAL : 



A MODERN 

EPIC POEM, 
In FOUR CANTOS. 



Ergo non fatis eft rifu diducere rictum 
Auditoris : et eft quaedam tamen hie quoque virtus ; 
Eft brevitate opus, ut currat fententia, neu fe 
Impediat verbis laflas onerantibus aures. 
Et fermone opus eft modo trifti, faepe jocofo, 
Defendente vicem modo Rhetoris, atque Poetae, 
Interdum urbani parcentis viribus atque 
Extenuantis eas confulto. Ridiculum acri 
Fortius et melius magnas plerumque fecat res. 

Horat. Lib. i. Sat. 10. 



HARTFORD: 

Printed by Hudson and Goodwin, near the 
Great Bridge, 1782. 




M'FINGAL : 



CANTO FIRST 



OR 



The TOWN-MEETING, A. M. 



VK^HEN Yankies 1 , fkill'd in martial rule, 
Firft put the Britifli troops to fchool ; 
Inftru&ed them in warlike trade, 
And new manoeuvres of parade ; 
The true war-dance of Yanky-reels, 
And manual exercife of heels ; 
Made them give up, like faints complete, 
The arm of flefh and truft the feet, 
And work, like Chriftians undifTembling, 
Salvation out, by fear and trembling 2 ; 
Taught Percy fafhionable races, 
And modern modes of Chevy-chaces 3 : 



From 



16 M'Fingal: [canto 

From Bofton, in his beft array, 
Great 'Squire M'Fingal 4 took his way, 
And graced with enfigns of renown, 
Steer'd homeward to his native town. 

His high defcent our heralds trace 
To Oman's famed Fingalian race : 
For tho' their name fome part may lack, 
Old Fingal fpelt it with a Mac ; 
Which great M'Pherfon, with fubmiffion 
We hope will add, the next edition 5 . 

His fathers flourifh'd in the Highlands 
Of Scotia's fog-benighted iflands ; 
Whence gain'd our 'Squire two gifts by right, 
Rebellion and the Second-fight 6 . 
Of these the firft, in ancient days, 
Had gain'd the nobleft palms of praife, 
'Gainft Kings flood forth and many a crown'd head 
With terror of its might confounded ; 
Till rofe a King with potent charm 
His foes by goodnefs to difarm, 

Whom 



first.] The Town -Meeting, a 



M 



Whom ev'ry Scot and Jacobite 7 
Straight fell in love with, at firft fight ; 
Whofe gracious fpeech, with aid of penfions, 
Hufh'd down all murmurs of dhTenfions, 
And with the found of potent metal, 
Brought all their bluft'ring swarms to fettle 8 ; 
Who rain'd his minifterial mannas, 
Till loud Sedition fimg hofannahs ; 
The good Lords-Bilhops and the Kirk 
United in the public work 9 ; 
Rebellion from the Northern regions, 
With Bute and Mansfield fwore allegiance 10 ; 
And all combin'd to raze as nuifance, 
Of church and date, the conftitutions ; 
Pull down the empire, on whofe ruins 
They meant to edify their new ones ; 
Enflave th' American wildernefles, 
And tear the provinces in pieces n : 
For thefe our 'Squire among the valiant'ft, 
Employ'd his time and tools and talents ; 
And in their caufe with manly zeal 
Ufed his firft virtue, to rebel ; 



And 



1 8 M'Fingal: [canto 

And found this new rebellion pleafing 
As his old king-deftroying treafon. 

Nor lefs avail'd his optic Height, 
And Scottifh gift of fecond-fight. 
No antient fybil fam'd in rhyme 
Saw deeper in the womb of time ls ; 
No block in old Dodona's 13 grove, 
Could ever more orac'lar prove. 
Nor only faw he all that was, 
But much that never came to pass ; 
Whereby all Prophets far outwent he, 
Tho' former days produc'd a plenty; 
For any man with half an eye, 
What ftands before him may efpy; 
But optics fharp it needs I ween, 
To fee what is not to be feen. 
As in the days of antient fame 
Prophets and poets were the fame, 
And all the praife that poets gain 
Is but for what th' invent and feign : 
So gain'd our 'Squire his fame by feeing 
Such things as never would have being. 

Whence 



first.] The Town-Meeting, a. m. 19 

Whence he for oracles was grown 
The very tripod" of his town. 
Gazettes no fooner rofe a lye in, 
But ftraight he fell to prophefying ; 
Made dreadful {laughter in his courfe, 
O'erthrew provincials, foot and horfe ; 
Brought armies o'er by fudden preffings 
Of Hanoverians, Swifs and Heflians 15 ; 
Feafted with blood his Scottifh clan, 
And hang'd all rebels, to a man ; 
Divided their eftates and pelf, 
And took a goodly fhare himfelf I6 . 
All this with fpirit energetic, 
He did by fecond-light prophetic. 

Thus ftor'd with intellectual riches, 
Skill'd was our 'Squire in making fpeeches, 
Where ftrength of brain united centers 
With ftrength of lungs furpaffing Stentor's 17 . 
But as fome mufquets fo contrive it, 
As oft to mifs the mark they drive at, 
And tho' well aim'd at duck or plover, 
Bear wide and kick their owners over : 

So 



20 



M * F I N G A L : [CANTO 



So far'd our 'Squire, whofe reas'ning toil 
Would often on himfelf recoil, 
And (o much injur'd more his fide, 
The ftronger arg'ments he applied : 
As old war-elephants difmay'd, 
Trode down the troops they came to aid, 
And hurt their own fide more in battle 
Than lefs and ordinary cattle. ls 
Yet at town-meetings ev'ry chief 
Pinn'd faith on great M'Fingal's fleeve, 
And as he motion'd, all by rote 
Rais'd fympathetic hands to vote. 

The town, our Hero's fcene of action, 
Had long been torn by feuds of faction, 
And as each party's ftrength prevails, 
It turn'd up diff'rent, heads or tails ; 
With conftant rattling in a trice 
Show'd various fides as oft as dice : 
As that fam'd weaver, wife t' Ulyfles, 
By night each day's work pick'd in pieces, 
An tho' fhe iloutly did beftir her, 
Its nnifhing was ne'er the nearer 1 



.19 



So 



first.] The Town-Meeting, a. m . 21 

So did this town with ftedfaft zeal 

Weave' cob-webs for the public weal, 

Which when compleated, or before, 

A fecond vote in pieces tore. 

They met, made fpeeches full long winded, 

Ref .ilv'd, protefted, and refcinded ; 

AddrefTes figned, then chofe Committees, 

To flop all drinking of Bohea-teas ; 

With winds of do£lrine veer'd about, 

And turn'd all Whig-Committees out 20 . 

Meanwhile our Hero, as their head, 

In pomp the tory 21 faction led, 

Still following, as the 'Squire fhould please, 

Succeffive on, like files of geefe. 

And now the town was fummon'd greeting, 

To grand parading of town-meeting ; 

A mow, that Grangers might appall, 

As Rome's grave fenate did the Gaul 22 . 

High o'er the rout, on pulpit Hairs 23 , 

Like den of thieves in houfe of pray'rs, 

(That houfe, which loth a rule to break, 

Serv'd heav'n but one day in the week, 

Open 



22 M'Fingal: [canto 

Open the reft for all fupplies 

Of news and politics and lies) 

Stood forth the conftable, and bore 

His ftafF, like Merc'ry's wand of yore' 24 , 

Wav'd potent round, the peace to keep, 

As that laid dead men's fouls to fleep. 

Above and near th' hermetic ftafF, 

The moderator's upper half, 

In grandeur o'er the cufhion bow'd, 

Like Sol half-feen behind a cloud. 25 

Beneath ftood voters of all colours, 

Whigs, tories, orators and bawlers, 

With ev'ry tongue in either faction, 

Prepar'd, like minute-men' 26 , for action ; 

Where truth and falfehood, wrong and right, 

Draw all their legions out to fight ; 

With equal uproar, fcarcely rave, 

Oppofing winds in iEolus' cave 27 ; 

Such dialogues with earneft face, 

Held never Balaam with his afs 28 . 

With daring zeal and courage bleft 

Honorius 29 firft the crowd addrefs'd ; 

When 



first.] The Town-Meeting, a. m. 23 

When now our 'Squire returning late, 
Arrived to aid the grand debate, 
With ftrange four faces fat him down, 
While thus the orator went on. 

" — For ages bleft, thus Britain rofe 
The terror of encircling foes ; 
Her heroes rul'd the bloody plain ; 
Her conq'ring ftandard aw'd the main : 
The diff 'rent palms her triumphs grace, 
Of arms in war, of arts in peace : 
UnharrafT'd by maternal care, 
Each riling province flourifh'd fair ; 
Whofe various wealth with lib'ral hand, 
By. far o'er-paid the parent-land 30 . 
But tho' fo bright her fun might fhine, 
'Twas quickly hailing to decline, 
With feeble rays, too weak t' affuage, 
The damps, that chill the eve of age. 

For ftates, like men, are doom'd as well 
Th' infirmities of age to feel 31 ; 

And 



24 M * F I N G A l : [canto 

And from their diff'rent forms of empire 

Are feiz'd with ev'ry deep diftemper. 

Some ftates high fevers have made head in, 

Which nought could cure but copious bleeding ; 

While others have grown dull and dozy, 

Or fix'd in helplefs idiocy; 

Or turn'd demoniacs to belabour 

Each peaceful habitant and neighbour ; 

Or vex't with hypocondriac fits, 

Have broke their ftrength and loft their wits. 

Thus now while hoary years prevail, 
Good Mother Britain feem'd to fail ; 
Her back bent, crippled with the weight 
Of age and debts and cares of ftate : 
For debts me ow'd, and thofe fo large, 
As twice her wealth could not difcharge, 
And now 'twas thought, fo high they'd grown, 
She'd break and come upon the town 3 '-'; 
Her arms, of nations once the dread, 
She fcarce could lift above her head ; 
Her deafen'd ears ('twas all their hope) 
The final trump perhaps might ope, 

So 



first.] The Town -Meeting, a. m. 25 

So long they'd been in ftupid mood, 
Shut to the hearing of all good ; 
Grim Death had put her in his fcroll, 
Down on the execution-roll ; 
And Gallic crows, as fhe grew weaker, 
Began to whet their beaks to pick her 3a 
And now her pow'rs decaying faft, 
Her grand ClimacVric had fhe paft, 
And, juft like all old women clfe, 
Fell in the vapours much by fpells. 
Strange whimfies on her fancy (truck, 
And gave her brain a difmal fhock ; 
Her mem'ry fails, her judgment ends ; 
She quite forgot her neareft friends, 
Loft all her former fenfe and knowledge, 
And fitted faft for Beth'lem college 34 ; 
Of all the pow'rs me once retain'd, 
Conceit and pride alone remain'd. 
As Eve when falling was fo modeft 
To fancy fhe fhould grow a goddefs 35 ; 
As madmen, ftraw who long have flept on, 
Will stile them, Jupiter or Neptune: 



So 



26 M ' F I N G A L : [CANTC 

So Britain 'midft her airs fo flighty, 

Now took a whim to be Almighty; 

Urg'd on to defp'rate heights of frenzy, 

Affirm'd her own Omnipotency 36 ; 

Would rather ruin all her race, 

Than 'bate Supremacy an ace ; 

AfTumed all rights divine, as grown 

The churches head 37 , like good Pope Joan 38 ; 

Swore all the world mould bow and fkip 

To her almighty Goody fhip ; 

Anath'matiz'd each unbeliever, 

And vow'd to live and rule forever. 

Her fervants humour'd every whim, 

And own'd at once her pow'r fupreme, 

Her follies pleas'd in all their ftages, 

For fake of legacies and wages ; 

In Stephen's Chapel 39 then in ftate too 

Set up her golden calf to pray to, 

Proclaim'd its pow'r and right divine, 

And call'd for worfhip at its fhrine, 

And for poor Heretics to burn us, 

Bade North 40 prepare his fiery furnace; 

Struck 



first.] The Town-Meeting, a.m. 27 

Struck bargains with the Romifh churches 

Infallibility to purchafe ; 

Set wide for Popery the door, 

Made friends with Babel's fcarlet whore 41 , 

Join'd both the matrons firm in clan ; 

No fillers made a better fpan. 

No wonder then, ere this was over, 

That me mould make her children fuffer. 

She firft, without pretence of reafon, 

Claim'd right whate'er we had to feize on ; 

And with determin'd refolution, 

To put her claims in execution, 

Sent fire and fword, and called it, Lenity, 

Starv'd us, and chriften'd it, Humanity 42 . 

For fhe, her cafe grown defperater, 

Miftook the plaineft things in nature ; 

Had loft all ufe of eyes or wits ; 

Took flav'ry for the bill of rights 43 ; 

Trembled at Whigs and deem'd them foes, 

And ftopp'd at loyalty her nofe ; 

Stiled her own children, brats and caitiffs, 

And knew us not from th y Indian natives. 

What 



2 g M'FlNGAL. [CANTO 

What tho' with fupplicating pray'r 
We begg'd our lives and goods fhe'd fpare 41 ; 
Not vainer vows, with fillier call, 
Elijah's prophets rais'd to Baal 13 ; 
A worlhipp'd flock of god, or goddefs, 
Had better heard and underftood us. 
So once Egyptians at the Nile 
Ador'd their guardian Crocodile, 
Who heard them nrft with kindeft ear, 
And ate them to reward their pray'r !fi ; 
And could he talk, as kings can do, 
Had made as gracious fpeeches too n . 

Thus fpite of pray'rs her fchemes purfuing, 
She ftill went on to work our ruin ; 
Annull'd our charters of releafes 48 , 
And tore our title-deeds in pieces ; 
Then fign'd her warrants of ejection, 
And gallows rais'd to itretch our necks on : 
And on thefe errands fent in rage, 
Her bailiff, and her hangman, Gage 49 , 
And at his heels, like dogs to bait us, 
Difpatch'd her Pofle Comitatus 50 . 



No 



first.] The Town- Meeting, a.m. 29 

No flate e'er chofe a fitter perfon, 
To carry fuch a filly farce on. 
As Heathen gods in antient days 
Received at fecond-hand their praife, 
Stood imag'd forth in ftones and flocks, 
And deified in barber's blocks ; 
So Gage was chofe to reprefent 
Th' omnipotence of Parliament. 
And as old heroes gain'd, by fhifts, 
From gods, as poets tell, their gifts ; 
Our Gen'ral, as his a&ions fhow, 
Gain'd like afliftance from below, 
By Satan graced with full fupplies, 
From all his magazine of lies. 
Yet could his practice ne'er impart 
The wit to tell a lie with art. 
Thofe lies alone are formidable, 
Where artful truth is mixt with fable ; 
But Gage has bungled oft fo vilely, 
No foul would credit lies fo filly, 
Outwent all faith and ftretch'd beyond 
Credulity's extremeft end. 

Whence 



30 M'Fingal. [canto 

Whence plain it feems tho' Satan once 
O'erlook'd with fcorn each brainlefs dunce, 
And blund'ring brutes in Eden fhunning, 
Chofe out the ferpent for his cunning 01 ; 
Of late he is not half fo nice, 
Nor picks affiftants, 'caufe they're wife. 
For had he flood upon perfection, 
His prefent friends had loft th' election, 
And far'd as hard in this proceeding, 
As owls and afTes did in Eden. 

Yet fools are often dang'rous enemies, 
As meaneft reptiles are moll venomous ; 
Nor e'er could Gage by craft and prowefs 
Have done a whit more mifchief to us : 
Since he began th* unnatural war, 
The work his mailers fent him for. 

And are there in this freeborn land 
Among ourfelves a venal band, 
A daflard race, who long have fold 
Their fouls and confciences for gold ; 

Who 



FIRST 



.]The Town-Meeting, a.m. 31 



Who wifh to flab their country's vitals, 
If they might heir furviving titles ; 
With joy behold our mifchiefs brewing, 
Infult and triumph in our ruin ? 
Priefts who, if Satan mould fit down, 
To make a Bible of his own, 
Would gladly for the fake of mitres, 
Turn his infpir'd and facred writers ; 
Lawyers, who mould he wifh to prove 
His title t' his old feat above, 
Would, if his caufe he'd give 'em fees in, 
Bring writs of Entry fur difleifm 52 , 
Plead for him boldly at the feffion, 
And hope to put him in pofleffion ; 
Merchants who, for his kindly aid, 
Would make him partners in their trade, 
Hang out their ligns in goodly fhow, 
Infcrib'd with 'Beelzebub and Co.' 
And Judges, who would lift his pages, 
For proper liveries and wages ; 
And who as humbly cringe and bow 
To all his mortal fervants now ? 



There 



3 2 



M * F I N G A l : [canto 



There are ; and fhame with pointing geftures, 
Marks out th' AddrelTers and Proteflers 53 ; 
Whom, following down the ftream of fate, 
Contempts ineffable await, 
And public infamy forlorn, 
Dread hate and everlaiting fcorn." 

As thus he fpake, our 'Squire M'Fingal 

Gave to his partizans a fignal. 

Not quicker roll'd the waves to land, 

When Mofes wav'd his potent wand, 

Nor with more uproar, than the Tories 

Set up a gen'ral rout in chorus ; 

Laugh'd, hifs'd, hem'd, murmur'd, groan'd and jeer'd ; 

Honorius now could fcarce be heard. 

Our Mufe amid th' increafmg roar, 

Could not diftinguifh one word more : 

Tho' fhe fat by, in firm record 

To take in fhorthand ev'ry word ; 

As antient Muses wont, to whom 

Old Bards for depofitions come ; 

Who mult have writ 'em ; for how elfe 

Could they each fpeech verbatim tell 's ? 

And 



first.] The Town-Meeting, a. m. 33 

And tho' fome readers of romances 

Are apt to ftrain their tortur'd fancies, 

And doubt, when lovers all alone 

Their fad foliloquies do groan, 

Grieve many a page with no one near 'em, 

And nought but rocks and groves to hear 'em, 

What fpright infernal could have tattled. 

And told the authors all they prattled ; 

Whence fome weak minds have made objection, 

That what they fcribbled mull be fiction : 

'Tis falfe ; for while the lovers fpoke, 

The Mufe was by, with table-book, 

And leafl fome blunder might enfue, 

Echo flood clerk and kept the cue. 

And tho' the fpeech ben't worth a groat, 

As ufual, 'tisn't the author's fault, 

But error merely of the prater, 

Who mould have talk'd to th' purpofe better : 

Which full excufe, my critic-brothers, 

May help me out, as well as others ; 

And 'tis defign'd, tho' here it lurk, 

To ferve as preface to this work. 

So 



34 M'Fingal: [cantc 

So let it be — for now our 'Squire 
No longer could contain his ire ; 
And rifing 'midft applauding Tories, 
Thus vented wrath upon Honorius. 

Quoth he, " 'Tis wondrous what ftrange fluff 
Your Whig's-heads are compounded of; 
Which force of logic cannot pierce, 
Nor fyllogiftic carte & tierce, 
Nor weight of fcripture or of reafon 
Suffice to make the leaft impreffion. 
Not heeding what ye raif'd contefl on, 
Ye prate, and beg or fteal the queftion ; 
And when your boafled arguings fail, 
Strait leave all reaf'ning off, to rail. 
Have not our High-Church Clergy 54 made it 
Appear from fcriptures which ye credit, 
That right divine from heav'n was lent 
To kings, that is the Parliament, 
Their fubje&s to opprefs and teaze, 
And ferve the Devil when they pleafe? 
Did they not write and pray and preach, 
And torture all the parts of fpeech, 

About 



first.] The Town-Meeting, a. m. 35 

About Rebellion make a pother, 
From one end of the land to th* other ? 
And yet gain'd fewer prof'lyte Whigs, 
Than old St. Anth'ny 'rnongft the pigs ; 
And chang'd not half fo many vicious 
As Auftin, when he preach'd to fifties ; 
Who throng'd to hear, the legend tells, 
Were edified and wagg'd their tails K : 
But fcarce you'd prove it, if you tried, 
That e'er one Whig was edified. 
Have ye not heard from Parfon Walter 50 
Much dire prefage of many a halter ? 
What warnings had ye of your duty 
From our old Rev'rend Sam. Auchmuty 57 ? 
From Priefts of all degrees and metres, 
T' our fag-end man poor Parfon Peters 53 ? 
Have not our Cooper 59 and our Seabury 60 
Sung hymns, like Barak and old Deborah 61 ; 
Prov'd all intrigues to fet you free 
Rebellion 'gainft the pow'rs that be ; 
Brought over many a fcripture text 
That ufed to wink at rebel fe&s, 

Coax'd 



36 M'Fingal: [cantc 

Coax'd wayward ones to favour regents, 

Or paraphraf'd them to obedience ; 

Prov'd ev'ry king, ev'n thofe confeft 

Horns of th' Apocalyptic beafh 62 , 

And fprouting from its noddles feven, 

Ordain'd, as bifhops are, by heav'n ; 

(For reafons fim'lar, as we're told 

That Tophet was ordain'd of old) 

By this lay-ordination valid 

Becomes all fanctified and hallow'd, 

Takes patent out when heav'n has fign'd it, 

And Harts up ftrait, the Lord's anointed ? 

Like extreme unction that can cleanfe 

Each penitent from deadly fins, 

Make them run glib, when oil'd by Prieit, 

The heav'nly road, like wheels new greaf'd, 

Serve them, like fhoeball 63 , for defences 

'Gainfl: wear and tear of confciences : 

So king's anointment cleans betimes, 

Like fuller's earth 61 , all fpots of crimes, 

For future knav'ries gives commimons, 

Like Papifts finning under licence". 

F01 



first.] The Town- Meeting, a. m. y, 

For heav'n ordain'd the origin, 

Divines declare, of pain and fin ; 

Prove fuch great good they both have done us, 

Kind mercy 'twas they came upon us : 

For without pain and fin and folly 

Man ne'er were bleft, or wife, or holy ; 

And we fhould thank the Lord, 'tis fo, 

As authors grave wrote long ago. 

Now heav'n its iflues never brings 

Without the means, and thefe are kings ; 

And he, who blames when they announce ills, 

Would counteract, th' eternal counfels. 

As when the Jews, a murm'ring race, 

By conftant grumblings fell from grace, 

Heav'n taught them firft to know their diflance, 

By famine, flav'ry and Philiftines ; 

When thefe could no repentance bring, 

In wrath it fent them laft a king 63 : 

So nineteen, 'tis believ'd, in twenty 

Of modern kings for plagues are fent you ; 

Nor can your cavillers pretend, 

But that they anfwer well their end. 

'Tis 



38 M ' F I N G A l : [canto 

'Tis yours to yield to their command, 

As rods in Providence's hand ; 

And if it means to fend you pain, 

You turn your nofes up in vain ; 

Your only way's in peace to bear it, 

And make neceffity a merit. 

Hence fure perdition mull await 

The man, who rifes 'gainft the ftate, 

Who meets at once the damning fentence, 

Without one loophole for repentance; 

E'en tho' he 'gain the royal fee, 

And rank among the pow'rs that be CT : 

For hell is theirs, the fcripture fhows, 

Whoe'er the pow'rs that be oppofe, 

And all thofe pow'rs (I am clear that 'tis fo) 

Are damn'd for ever, ex officio. 

Thus far our Clergy ; but 'tis true, 

We lack'd not earthly reaf'ners too. 

Had I the Poet's brazen lungs 68 

As found-board to his hundred tongues, 

I could not half the fcriblers mufter 

That fwarm'd round Rivington 09 in clufter; 

Aflemblies, 



first.] The Town-Meeting, a. m . 39 

AfTemblies, Councilmen, forfooth; 

Brum 70 , Cooper 71 , Wilkins 72 , Chandler 73 , Booth 71 . 

Yet all their arguments and fap'ence, 

You did not value at three halfpence. 

Did not our Maflachufettenfis 7j 

For your convi&ion ftrain his fenfes ? 

Scrawl ev'ry moment he could fpare, 

From cards and barbers and the fair ; 

Show, clear as fun in noonday heavens, 

You did not feel a fingle grievance ; 

Demonftrate all your oppofition 

Sprung from the eggs of foul fedition ; 

Swear he had feen the nefl fhe laid in, 

And knew how long fhe had been fitting ; 

Could tell exact what ftrength of heat is 

Requir'd to hatch her out Committees 76 ; 

What fhapes they take, and how much longer's 

The fpace before they grow t' a Congrefs ? 

New whitewafh'd Hutchinfon 77 and varnifh'd, 

Our Gage, who'd got a little tarnifh'd, 

Made 'em new malks, in time no doubt, 

For Hutchinfon's was quite worn out ; 

And 



4 o 



M ' F I N G A l : [canto 



And while he muddled all his head 

You did not heed a word he faid. 

Did not our grave Judge Sewall 73 hit 

The fummit of news-paper wit ? 

Fill'd ev'ry leaf of ev'ry paper 

Of Mills and Hicks 79 and mother Draper 80 ; 

Drew proclamations, works of toil, 

In true fublime of fcarecrow ftyle ; 

Wrote farces too, 'gainft Sons of Freedom 81 , 

All for your good, and none would read 'em ; 

Denounc'd damnation on their frenzy, 

Who died in Whig-impenitency ; 

Affirm'd that heav'n would lend us aid, 

As all our Tory-writers faid, 

And calculated fo its kindnefs, 

He told the moment when it join'd us." 

" 'Twas then belike, Honorius cried, 
When you the public faft defied 82 , 
Refuf'd to heav'n to raife a prayer, 
Becaufe you'd no connections there ; 
And fince with rev'rent hearts and faces 
To Governors you'd make addrefles, 



In 



first.] The Town-Meeting, a. m . 41 

In them, who made you Tories, feeing 
You lived and mov'd and had your being ; 
Your humble vows you would not breathe 
To pow'rs you'd no acquaintance with." 

" As for your falls, replied our 'Squire, 
What circumilance could fails require ; 
We kept them not, but 'twas no crime ; 
We held them merely lofs of time. 
For what advantage firm and lafling, 
Pray did you ever get by failing ? 
And what the gains that can arife 
From vows and off'rings to the ikies ? 
Will heav'n reward with polls and fees, 
Or fend us Tea, as Conilgnees 83 , 
Give peniions, fal'ries, places, bribes, 
Or chufe us judges, clerks, or fcribes ? 
Has it commiffions in its gift; 
Or cafh, to ferve us at a lift ? 
Are acts of parliament there made, 
To carry on the placeman's trade ? 
Or has it pafs'd a fmgle bill 

To let us plunder whom we will ? 

And 



4 2 



M ' F I N G A l : [canto 



And iook our lift of placemen all over ; 

Did heav'n appoint our chief judge, Oliver iJ , 

Fill that high bench with ignoramus, 

Or has it councils by mandamus 83 ? 

Who made that wit of water-gruel 83 , 

A Judge of Admiralty, Sewall ? 

And were they not mere earthly ifruggles, 

That raif'd up Murray 87 , fay, and Ruggles 83 ? 

Did heav'n fend down, our pains to med'cine, 

That old fimplicity of Edfon bJ , 

Or by election pick out from us, 

That Marfhfield blund'rer Nat. Ray Thomas 111 ; 

Or had it any hand in ferving 

A Loring 91 , Pepp'rell °\ Browne 93 , or Erving- 4 ? 

Yet we've fome faints, the very thing, 
We'll pit againft the bell: you'll bring 
For can the ftrongeft fancy paint 
Than Hutchinfon a greater faint ? 
Was there a parfon ufed to pray 
At times more reg'lar twice a day ; 
As folks exadl have dinners got, 
Whether they've appetites or not ? 



Was 



FIRST 



.] The Town -Meeting, a.m. 43 



Was there a zealot more alarming 
'Gainfl public vice to hold forth fermon, 
Or fix'd at church, whofe inward motion 
Roll'd up his eyes with more devotion ? 
What Puritan 9 " could ever pray- 
In Godlier tone, than treaf'rer Gray 93 , 
Or at town-meetings fpeechify'ng, 
Could utter more melodious whine, 
And fhut his eyes and vent his moan, 
Like owl afflicted in the fun ? 
Who once fent home his canting rival, 
Lord Dartmouth's 97 felf, might outbedrivel. 

" Have you forgot, Honorius cried, 
How your prime faint the truth defied, 
Affirm'd he never wrote a line 
Your charter'd rights to undermine ; 
When his own letters then were by, 
That prov'd his meffage all a lie 93 ? 
How many promifes he feaPd, 
To get th' oppreffive acts repeal'd, 
Yet once arriv'd on England's fliore, 
Set on the Premier to pafs more 99 ? 



But 



44 M * F I N G A L . [canto 

But these are no defe&s, we grant, 

In a right loyal Tory faint, 

Whofe godlike virtues muft with eafe 

Atone fuch venal crimes as thefe : 

Or ye perhaps in fcripture fpy 

A new commandment, f Thou fhalt lie ; ' 

And if 't be fo (as who can tell ?) 

There's no one fure ye keep fo well." 

" Quoth he, For lies and promife-breaking 
Ye need not be in fuch a taking ; 
For lying is, we know and teach, 
The higheft privilege of fpeech ; 
The universal Magna Charta, 
To which all human race is party, 
Whence children firft, as David fays, 
Lay claim to 't in their earlier! days ; 
The only ftratagem in war, 
Our Gen'rals have occafion for ; 
The only freedom of the prefs 
Our politicians need in peace : 
And 'tis a fhame you wifh t' abridge us 
Of thefe our darling privileges. 

Thank 



first.] The Town-Meeting, a.m. 4.5 

Thank heav'n, your fhot have mifs'd their aim, 
For lying is no fin, or fhame. 

As men laft wills may change again, 

Tho' drawn in name of God, amen ; 

Befure they mull have much the more, 

O'er promifes as great a pow'r, 

Which made in hafte, with fmall infpeclion, 

So much the more will need correction ; 

And when they've carelefs fpoke, or penn'd em, 

Have right to look 'em o'er and mend 'em ; 

Revife their vows, or change the text, 

By way of codicil annex'd, 

Turn out a promife, that was bafe, 

And put a better in its place. 

So Gage of late agreed, you know, 

To let the Bolton people go ; 

Yet when he faw 'gainft troops that brav'd him, 

They were the only guards that fav'd him 100 , 

Kept off that Satan of a Putnam, 

From breaking in to maul and mutt'n him 101 ; 

He'd too much wit fuch leagues t' obferve, 

And fhut them in again to ftarve. 

So 



4-6 M ' F I N G A L . [CANTO 

So Mofes writes, when female Jews 
Made oaths and vows unfit for ufe, 
Their parents then might fet them free 
From that confcientious tyranny 102 : 
And mail men feel that fpir'tual bondage 
Forever, when they grow beyond age ; 
Nor have pow'r their own oaths to change ? 
I think the tale were very ftrange. 
Shall vows but bind the flout and ftrong, 
And let go women weak and young, 
As nets enclofe the larger crew, 
And let the fmaller fry creep thro' ? 
Befides, the Whigs have all been fet on, 
The Tories to affright and threaten, 
Till Gage amidft his trembling fits 
Has hardly kept him in his wits ; 
And tho' he fpeak with art and fineffe, 
'Tis faid beneath durefs per minas. 
For we're in peril of our fouls 
From feathers, tar and lib'rty-poles 103 : 
And vows extorted are not binding 
In law, and fo not worth the minding. 

For 



first.] The Town-Meeting, a . m . 47 

For we have in this hurly-burly 
Sent off our'confciences on furlow, 
Thrown our religion o'er in foi m ; 
Our {hip to lighten in the ftorm. 
Nor need we blufh your Whigs before ; 
If we've no virtue you've no more. 

Yet black with fins, would ftain a mitre, 
Rail ye at crimes by. ten tints whiter, 
And ftuff'd with choler atrabilious, 
Infult us here for peccadilloes ? 
While all your vices run fo high 
That mercy fcarce could find fupply : 
While mould you offer to repent, 
You'd need more falling days than Lent, 
More groans than haunted churchyard vallieSj 
And more confeffions than broad-alleys 104 . 
I'll mow you all at fitter time, 
The extent and greatnefs of your crime, 
And here demonftrate to your face, 
Your want of virtue, as of grace, 
Evinced from topics old and recent : 
But thus much mull fuffice at prefent. 

To 



48 M ' F I N G A L : [CANTC 

To th' after-portion of the day, 
I leave what more remains to fay ; 
When I've good hope you'll all appear, 
More fitted and prepared to hear, 
And griev'd for all your vile demeanour 
But now 'tis time t' adjourn for dinner." 







M'FINGAL : 

CANTO SECOND, 

O R 

The TOWN-MEETING, P. M. 

' I V HE Sun, who never flops to dine, 

Two hours had pafs'd the midway line, 
And driving at his ufual rate, 
Lafh'd on his downward car of ftate. 
And now expired the fhort vacation, 
And dinner done in epic famion ; 
While all the crew beneath the trees, 
Eat pocket-pies, or bread and cheefe ; 
Nor mall we, like old Homer care 
To verfify their bill of fare. 
For now each party, feafted well, 
Throng'd in, like fheep, at found of bell, 

With 



5 o M * F I N G A l : [canto 

With equal fpirit took their places ; 
And meeting oped with three Oh yefles 1 : 
When firft the daring Whigs 't oppofe, 
Again the great M'Fingal rofe, 
Stretch'd magiilerial arm amain, 
And thus aflum'd th' accufing ftrain. 

" Ye Whigs attend, and hear affrighted 

The crimes whereof ye ftand indicted, 

The fins and follies paft all compafs, 

That prove you guilty or non compos. 

I leave the verdict to your fenfes, 

And jury of your confciences ; 

Which tho' they're neither good nor true, 

Muft yet convict you and your crew. 

Ungrateful fons ! a factious band, 

That rife againft your parent-land ! 

Ye viper'd race, that burft in ftrife, 

The welcome womb, that gave you life, 

Tear with fharp fangs and forked tongue, 

Th' indulgent bowels, whence you fprung ; 

And fcorn the debt of obligation 

You juftly owe the Britifh nation, 

Which 



second.] The Town-Meeting, p. m.* 51 

Which fince you cannot pay, your crew 
Affedt to fwear 'twas never due. 
Did not the deeds of England's Primate 2 
Firft drive your fathers to this climate, 
Whom jails and fines and ev'ry ill 
Forc'd to their good againft their will ? 
Ye owe to their obliging temper 
The peopling your newfangled empire, 
While ev'ry Britifh ac"t and canon 
Stood forth your caufa fine qua non. 
Did they not fend you charters o'er 3 , 
And give you lands you own'd before, 
Permit you all to fpill your blood, 
And drive out heathen where you could ; 
On thefe mild terms, that conqueft won, 
The realm you gain'd mould be their own. 
Or when of late attack'd by thofe, 
Whom her connection made your foes 4 , 
Did they not then, diftrefl in war, 
Send Gen'rals to your help from far 5 , 
Whofe aid you own'd in terms lefs haughty 

And thankfully o'erpaid your quota ? c 

Say 



5 2 ~ M'Fingal: [canto 

Say, at what period did they grudge 

To fend you Governor or Judge, 

With all their miffionary crew, 

To teach you law and gofpel too ? 

Brought o'er all felons in the nation, 

To help you on in population ; 

Propos'd their Bifhops to furrender, 

And made their Priefts a legal tender, 

Who only afk'd in furplice clad, 

The fimple ty the of all you had 7 : 

And now to keep all knaves in awe, 

Have fent their troops t' eftablifh law, 

And with gunpowder, fire and ball, 

Reform your people one and all. 

Yet when their infolence and pride 

Have anger'd all the world befide, 

When fear and want at once invade, 

Can you refufe to lend them aid ; 

And rather rifque your heads in fight, 

Than gratefully throw in your mite 8 ? 

Can they for debts make fatisfacldon, 

Should they diipofe their realm by auction ; 

And 



second.] The Town-Meeting, p.m. 53 

And fell off Britain's goods and land all 

To France and Spain by inch of candle ? 

Shall good king George, with want oppreft, 

Infert his name in bankrupt lift, 

And fhut up fhop, like failing merchant, 

That fears the bailiffs mould make fearch in't ; 

With poverty mall princes ftrive, 

And nobles lack whereon to live ? 

Have they not rack'd their whole inventions, 

To feed their brats on polls and penfions 9 , 

Made ev'n Scotch friends with taxes groan, 

And pick'd poor Ireland to the bone ; 

Yet have on hand as well deferving, 

Ten thousand baftards left for ftarving ? 

And can you now with confcience clear, 

Refufe them an afylum here, 

Or not maintain in manner fitting 

These genuine fons of mother Britain 10 ? 

T' evade thefe crimes of blackeft grain, 

You prate of liberty in vain, 

And ftrive to hide your vile deligns, 

With terms abftrufe like fchool-divines. 

Your 



54 



M * F I N G A l : [canto 



Your boafted patriotifm is fcarce, 
And country's love is but a farce ; 
And after all the proofs you bring, 
We Tories know there's no fuch thing. 
Our Englifh writers of great fame 
Prove public virtue but a name. 
Hath not Dalrymple " fhow'd in print, 
And Johnfon 12 too, there's nothing in't ? 
Produc'd you demonnration ample 
From other's and their own example, 
That felf is ftill, in either faction, 
The only principle of action ; 
The loadilone, whofe attracting tether 
Keeps the politic world together : 
And fpite of all your double-dealing, 
We Tories know 'tis fo, by feeling. 

Who heeds your babbling of tranfmitting 
Freedom to brats of your begetting, 
Or will proceed as though there were a tie, 
Or obligation to pofterity 13 ? 
We get 'em, bear 'em, breed and nurfe ; 
What has pofter'ty done for us, 



That 



second.] The Town -Meeting, p. m. 55 

That we, left they their rights fhould lofe, 
Should truft our necks to gripe of noofe ? 

And who believes you will not run ? 
You're cowards, ev'ry mother's Ton ; 
And fhould you offer to deny, 
We've witnefTes to prove it by. 
Attend th' opinion firfl:, as referee, 
Of your old Gen'ral, flout Sir Jeffery 14 , 
Who fwore that with five thoufand foot 
He'd rout you all, and in purfuit, 
Run thro' the land as eafily, 
As camel thro' a needle's eye 10 . 
Did not the valiant Col'nel Grant 
Againft your courage make his flant, 
Affirm your univerfal failure 
In ev'ry principle of valour, 
And fwear no fcamp'rers e'er could match you, 
So fwift, a bullet fcarce could catch you 16 ? « 
And will ye not confefs in this, 
A judge moft competent he is, 
Well fkill'd on runnings to decide, 
As what himfelf has often tried ? 

'Twould 



$6 M ' Fin gal. [canto 

'Twould not methinks be labour loft, 

If you'd fit down and count the coft ; 

And ere you call your Yankies out, 

Firft think what work you've fet about. 

Have ye not rouz'd, his force to try on, 

That grim old beaft, the Britifh lion? 

And know you not that at a fup 

He's large enough to eat you up ? 

Have you furvey'd his jaws beneath, 

Drawn inventories of his teeth, 

Or have you weigh'd in even balance, 

His ftrength and magnitude of talons ? 

His roar would turn your boafts to fear, 

As eafily as four fmall-beer 17 , 

And make your feet from dreadful fray, 

By native inftinct run away. 

Britain, depend on't will take on her 

T' aflert her dignity and honor, 

And ere fhe'd lofe your fhare of pelf, 

Deftroy your country and herfelf. 

For has not North declar'd they fight 

To gain fubftantial rev'nue by't 18 , 

Denied 



second.] The Town -Meeting, p.m. 5; 

Denied he'd ever deign to treat, 
Till on your knees and at his feet ? 
And feel you not a trifling ague, 
From Van's Delenda eft Carthago 19 ? 
For this, now Britain has come to't, 
Think you fhe has not means to do't ? 
Has fhe not fet to work all engines 
To fpirit up the native Indians, 
Send on your backs a favage band, 
With each a hatchet in his hand, 
T' amufe themfelves with fcalping knives, 
And butcher children and your wives 20 ; 
That ftie may boaft again with vanity, 
Her Englifh national humanity ? 
(For now in its primaeval fenfe, 
This term, human'ty, comprehends 
All things of which, on this fide hell, 
The human mind is capable ; 
And thus 'tis well, by writers fage, 
Applied to Britain and to Gage.) 
And on this work to raife allies, 
She fent her duplicate of Guys, 

To 



8 M * F i n g a l : [canto 



To drive, at diff'rent parts at once, on 
Her flout Guy Carlton and Guy Johnfon 21 
To each of whom, to fend again ye 
Old Guy of Warwick were a ninny 22 . 
Tho' the dun cow he fell'd in war, 
Thefe killcows are his betters far 23 . 

And has fhe not aflay'd her notes, 
To rouze your flaves to cut your throats, 
Sent o'er ambafTadors with guineas, 
To bribe your blacks in Carolinas 24 ? 
And has not Gage, her miffionary 
Turn'd many an Afric flave t' a Tory, 
And made th' Amer'can bifhop's fee grow, 
By many a new-converted Negro 25 ? 
As friends to gov'rnment did not he 
Their flaves at Bofton late set free ; 
Enlift them all in black parade, 
Set ofFwith regimental red 26 ? 
And were they not accounted then 
Among his very braveft men ? 
And when fuch means fhe ftoops to take, 
Think you fhe is not wide awake ? 



As 



second.] The Town-Meeting, p. m. 59 

As Eliphaz' good man in Job 

Own'd num'rous allies thro' the globe ; 

Had brought the flones along the ftreet 

To ratify a cov'nant meet, 

And ev'ry beaft from lice to lions, 

To join in leagues of ftric~t alliance 27 : 

Has (he not cring'd, in fpite of pride, 

For like affistance far and wide ? 

Was there a creature fo defpif'd, 

Its aid me has not fought and priz'd ? 

Till all this formidable league rofe 

Of Indians, Britifh troops and Negroes 2S 3 

And can you break thefe triple bands 

By all your workmanfhip of hands ? " 

" Sir, quoth Honorius, we prefume 

You guefs from paft feats, what's to come. 

And from the mighty deeds of Gage, 

Foretell how fierce the war he'll wage. 

You doubtlefs recollected here 

The annals of his firft. great year : 

While wearying out the Tories' patience, 

He fpent his breath in proclamations ; 

While 



6o 



M'Fingal: L canto 



While all his mighty noife and vapour 

Was ufed in wrangling upon paper ; 

And boafted military fits 

Clofed in the draining of his wits ; 

While troops in Bofton commons plac'd '" 

Laid nought but quires of paper wafte ; 

While ftrokes alternate ftunn'd the nation, 

Proteft, addrefs and proclamation ; 

And fpeech met fpeech, fib clafh'd with fib, 

And Gage ftill anfwer'd, fquib for fquib. 

Tho' this not all his time was loft on ; 
He fortified the town of Bofton ; 
Built breaftworks that might lend affiftance 
To keep the patriots at a diftance 30 ; 
(For howfoe'er the rogues might feoff, 
He liked them beft the farther! off) 
Of mighty ufe and help to aid 

His courage, when he felt afraid ; 

And whence right off in manful ftation, 

He'd boldly pop his proclamation. 

Our hearts muft in our bofoms freeze 

At fuch heroic deeds as thefe." 



Vain 



second.] The Town-Meeting, p.m. 61 

" Vain," quoth the 'Squire, "you'll find to fneer 
At Gage's firft triumphant year ; 
For Providence, difpos'd to teaze us, 
Can ufe what inftruments it pleafes. 
To pay a tax at Peter's wifh, 
His chief cafhier was once a Fifh 91 ; 
An Afs, in Balaam's fad difafter, 
Turn'd orator and fav'd his mafter 32 ; 
A Goofe plac'd centry on his ftation 
Preferv'd old Rome from defolation 33 ; 
An Englifh Biftiop's Cur of late 
Difclofed rebellions 'gainft the ftate 34 ; 
So Frogs croak'd Pharaoh to repentance, 
And Lice revers'd the threat'ning fentence 35 : 
iVnd heav'n can ruin you at pleafure, 
By our fcorn'd Gage, as well as Caefar. 
Yet did our hero in thefe days 
Pick up fome laurel wreaths of praife. 
And as the ftatuary of Seville 
Made his crackt faint an exc'llent devil; 
So tho' our war few triumphs brings, 

We gain'd great fame in other things. 

Did 



62 M ' F I N G A l : [canto 

Did not our troops fhow much difcerning, 
And fkill your various arts in learning ? 
Outwent they not each native Noodle 36 
By far in playing Yanky-doodle ; 
Which, as 'twas your New-England tune, 
'Twas marvellous they took fo foon 37 ? 
And ere the year was fully thro', 
Did not they learn to foot it too ; 
And fuch a dance as ne'er was known, 
For twenty miles on end lead down ? 
Was there a Yanky trick you knew, 
They did not play as well as you ? 
Did they not lay their heads together, 
And gain your art to tar and feather, 
When Col'nel Nefbitt thro' the town, 
In triumph bore the country-clown ? 
Oh, what a glorious work to fing 
The vet'ran troops of Britain's king, 
Advent'ring for th' heroic laurel, 
With bag of feathers and tar-barrel ! 
To paint the cart where culprits ride, 

And Nefbitt marching at its fide, 

Great 



second.] The Town -Meeting, p . m . 63 

Great executioner and proud, 
Like hangman high on Holbourn road ; 
And o'er the bright triumphal car 
The waving enfigns of the war 38 ! 
As when a triumph Rome decreed, 
For great Calig'la's valiant deed, 
Who had fubdued the Britifh feas, 
By gath'ring cockles from their bafe 39 ; 
In pompous car the conqu'ror bore 
His captiv'd fcallops from the fhore, 
Ovations gain'd his crabs for fetching, 
And mighty feats of oyfler-catching : 
O'er Yankies thus the war begun, 
They tarr'd and triumph'd over one ; 
And fought and boafted thro' the feafon, 
With might as great, and equal reafon. 

Yet thus, tho' fkill'd in vi&'ry's toils, 
They boaft, not unexpert, in wiles. 
For gain'd they not an equal fame in 
The arts of fecrecy and fcheming ? 
In ftratagems fhow'd mighty force, 
And moderniz'd the Trojan horfe, 

Play'd 



6 4 M'Fingal: [canto 

Play'd o'er again thofe tricks Ulyflean, 
In their fam'd Salem-expedition ? 
For as that horfe, the Poets tell ye, 
Bore Grecian armies in his belly ; 
Till their full reck'ning run, with joy 
Their Sinon midwif'd them in Troy 40 : 
So in one {hip was Leslie 41 bold 

Cramm'd with three hundred men in hold, 

Equipp'd for enterprize and fail, 

Like Jonas flow'd in womb of whale. 

To Marblehead 4 ' 2 in depth of night, 

The cautious veflel wing'd her flight. 

And now the fabbath's filent day 

Call'd all your Yankies off to pray ; 

Remov'd each prying jealous neighbour, 

The fcheme and vefTel fell in labour ; 

Forth from its hollow womb pour'd haft'ly 

The Myrmidons of Col'nel Leflie : 

Not thicker o'er the blacken'd ftrand 

The frogs' detachment rufh'd to land, 
Equipp'd by onfet or furprize 

To florin th' entrenchment of the mice 4 . 

Thro' 



second.] The Town -Meeting, p. M . 65 

Thro' Salem ftrait without delay, 
The bold battalion took its way, 
March'd o'er a bridge in open fight 
Of fev'ral Yankies arm'd for fight, 
Then without lofs of time, or men 
Veer'd round for Bofton back again ; 
And found fo well their projects thrive, 
That ev'ry foul got home alive 44 . 

Thus Gage's arms did fortune blefs 
With triumph, fafety and fuccess : 
But mercy is without difpute 
His firlt and darling attribute ; 
So great it far outwent and conquer'd 
His military fkill at Concord 45 . 
There when the war he chofe to wage 
Shone the benevolence of Gage ; 
Sent troops to that ill-omen'd place 
On errands meer of fpecial grace, 
And all the work he chofe them for 
Was to prevent a civil war 46 : 
And for that purpofe he projected 
The only certain way t' effeft it, 

To 



66 

* 



M'Fingal: [canto 



To take your powder, ftores and arms, 
And all your means of doing harms : 
As prudent folks take knives away, 
Left children cut themfelves at play. 
And yet tho' this was all his fcheme, 
This war you ftill will charge on him ; 
And tho' he oft has fwore and faid it, 
Stick clofe to fads and give no credit. 
Think you, he wifh'd you'd brave and beard him ? 
Why, 'twas the very thing that fcar'd him. 
He'd rather you mould all have run, 
Than ftay'd to fire a fingle gun. 
And for the civil war you lament, 
Faith, you yourfelves muft take the blame in't ; 
For had you then, as he intended, 
Giv'n up your arms, it muft have ended. 
Since that's no war, each mortal knows, 
Where one fide only gives the blows, 
' And th' other bears 'em ; on reflection 
The moft you'll call it is correftion. 
Nor could the conteft have gone higher, 
If you had ne'er return'd the fire ; 



But 



second.] The Town-Meeting, p. m . 67 

But when you mot, and not before, 

It then commene'd a civil war 47 . 

Elfe Gage, to end this controversy, 

Had but corrected you in mercy : 

Whom mother Britain old and wife, 

Sent o'er, the Col'nies to chaftise ; 

Command obedience on their peril 

Of minifterial whip and ferule ; 

And fince they ne'er mull come of age, 

Govern'd and tutor'd them by Gage. 

Still more, that this was all their errand, 

The army's conduct makes apparent. 

What tho' at Lexington you can fay 

They kill'd a few they did not fancy, 

At Concord then, with manful popping, 

Discharg'd a round the ball to open ? 

Yet when they faw your rebel-rout 

Determin'd Hill to hold it out ; 

Did they not mow their love to peace, 

And wifh, that difcord ilrait might ceafe, 

Demonftrate, and by proofs uncommon, 

Their orders were to injure no man ? 

For 






68 M ' F I N G A l : [canto 

For did not ev'ry Reg'lar run 

As foon as e'er you fir'd a gun 4 '; 

Take the first fhot you fent them greeting, 

As meant their fignal for retreating ; 

And fearful if they ftaid for fport, 

You might by accident be hurt, 

Convey themselves with fpeed away 

Full twenty miles in half a day 49 ; 

Race till their legs were grown fo weary, 

They'd fcarce fuffice their weight to carry ? 

Whence Gage extols, from gen'ral hearfay, 

The great activ'ty of Lord Piercy 50 ; 

Whofe brave example led them on, 

And fpirited the troops to run ; 

And now may boaft at royal levees 

A Yanky-chase worth forty Chevys 51 . 

Yet you as vile as they were kind, 

Purfued, like tygers, ftill behind, 

Fir'd on them at your will, and fhut 

The town, as tho' you'd ftarve them out ; 

And with parade prepoft'rous hedg'd 

Affect to hold them there befieg'd 5 ' 2 ; 

(Tho' 



second.] The Town-Meeting, p.m. 69 

(Tho' Gage, whom proclamations call 

Your Gov'rnor and Vice-Admiral, 

Whofe pow'r gubernatorial flill 

Extends as far as Bunker's hill ; 

Whofe admiralty reaches clever, 

Near half a mile up Myftic river 53 , 

Whofe naval force commands the feas, 

Can run away when'er he pleafe) 

Scar'd troops of Tories into town, 

And burnt their hay and houfes down, 

And menac'd Gage, unlefs he'd flee, 

To drive him headlong to the fea 54 ; 

As once, to faithless Jews a fign, 

The de'el, turn'd hog-reeve, did the fwine 55 . 

But now your triumphs all are o'er ; 

For fee from Britain's angry fhore 

With mighty ho lis of valour join 

Her Howe, her Clinton and Burgoyne 56 . 

As comets thro' the affrighted fkies 

Pour baleful ruin, as they rife 57 ; 

As JEtm, with infernal roar 

In conflagration fweeps the fhore ; 

Or 



7° 



M ' F I N G A l : [canto 



Or as Abijah White when fent 

Our Marfhfield friends to reprefent, 

Himfelf while dread array involves, 

Commimons, piftols, fwords, refolves, 

In awful pomp defcending down, 

Bore terror on the factious town 58 : 

Not with lefs glory and affright, 

Parade thefe Gen'rals forth to fight. 

No more each Reg'lar Col'nel runs 

From whizzing beetles, as air-guns, 

Thinks hornbugs bullets, or thro' fears 

Mufkitoes takes for mufketeers ; 

Nor 'fcapes, as tho' you'd gain'd allies 

From Belzebub's whole holt of flies. 

No bug their warlike hearts appalls ; 

They better know the found of balls 59 . 

I hear the din of battle bray, 

The trump of horror marks its way. 

I see afar the fack of cities, 

The gallows ftrung with Whig-committees 60 ; 

Your Moderators triced, like vermin, 

And gate-pofts graced with heads of Chairmen ; 



Your 



second.] The Town-Meeting, p. m. 71 

Your Gen'rals for wave-ofFrings hanging 61 , 

And ladders throng'd with Priefts haranguing. 

What pill'ries glad the Tories' eyes 

With patriot-ears for facrifice ! 

What whipping-pofts your chofen race 

Admit fucceffive in embrace 6 ' 2 , 

While each bears off his crimes, alack ! 

Like Bunyan's pilgrim, on his back 63 ; 

Where then, when Tories fcarce get clear, 

Shall Whigs and CongrefTes appear ? 

What rocks and mountains fhall you call 

To wrap you over with their fall, 

And fave your heads in thefe fad weathers, 

From fire and fword, and tar and feathers ! 

For lo, with Britifh troops tarbright, 

Again our Nefbitt heaves in fight ! 

He comes, he comes, your lines to ftorm, 

And rig your troops in uniform 64 ! 

To meet fuch heroes, will ye brag, 

With fury arm'd, and feather-bag ; 

Who wield their miffile pitch and tar, 

With engines new in Britifh war ? 

Lo 



7 2 



M 'Fin gal: [canto 



- 



Lo, where our mighty navy brings 
Deftruction on her canvas-wings € % 
While thro' the deeps her potent thunder, 
Shall found th' alarm to rob and plunder ! 
As Phoebus firft, fo Homer fpeaks, 
When he march'd out t' attack the Greeks 60 , 
'Gainft mules fent forth his arrows fatal, 
And flew th' auxiliaries, their cattle ; 
So where our fhips fhall ftretch the keel, 
What conquer'd oxen fhall they fteal ! 
What heroes rifing from the deep 
Invade your marfhall'd hofts of fheep ! 

Difperfe whole troops of horfe, and preffing, 

Make cows furrender at difcretion ; 

Attack your hens, like Alexanders, ■ 

And reg'ments rout of geefe and ganders ; 

Or where united arms combine 

Lead captive many a herd of fwine 61 ! 

Then rufh in dreadful fury down 

To fire on ev'ry feaport town ; 

Difplay their glory and their wits, 

Fright unarm'd children into fits, 



And 



second.] The Town-Meeting, p. m. 73 

And iloutly from th' unequal fray, 

Make many a woman run away' ! 

And can ye doubt whene'er we pleafe 

Our chiefs fhall boaft fuch deeds as thefe ? 

Have we not chiefs tranfcending far, 

The old fam'd thunderbolts of war ; 

Beyond the brave romantic fighters, 

Stiled fwords of death by novel-writers? 

Nor in romancing ages e'er rofe 

So terrible a tier of heroes. 

From Gage, what flames fright the waves ! 

How loud a blunderbufs is Graves 69 ! 

How Newport dreads the bluftring fallies, 

That thunder from our popgun, Wallace, 

While noife in formidable Arams 

Spouts from his thimble-full of brains 70 ! 

I fee you link with aw'd furprize ! 

I fee our Tory-brethren rife ! 

And as the fect'ries Sandemanian, 

Our friends defcribe their wifh'd Millennium 71 ; 

Tell how the world in ev'ry region 

At once fhall own their true religion ; 

For 



?4 M'Fingal: [canto 

For heav'n with plagues of awful dread 
Shall knock all heretics o' th' head ; 
And then their church, the meek in fpirit, 
The earth, as promif'd, mail inherit, 
From the dead wicked, as heirs male, 
And next remainder-men in tail : 
Such ruin mall the Whigs opprefs ! 
Such fpoils our Tory friends mail blefs ! 

While Confifcation at command 72 

Shall ftalk in horror thro' the land, 

Shall give your Whig-eftates away, 

And call our brethren into play. 

And can ye doubt or fcruple more, 
Thefe things are near you at the door ? 
Behold ! for tho' to reaf'ning blind, 
Signs of the times ye fure might mind, 
And view impending fate as plain 
As ye'd foretell a fhow'r of rain. 

Hath not heav'n warn'd you what muft enfue, 
And Providence declar'd againfl you ; 



Hung 



second.] The Town-Meeting, p. m. 75 

Hung forth its dire portents of war, 

By figns and beacons in the air 13 ; 

Alarm'd old women all around 

By fearful noifes under ground ; 

While earth for many dozen leagues 

Groan'd with her difmal load of Whigs ? 

Was there a meteor far and wide 

But mufter'd on the Tory-fide ? 

A ftar malign that has not bent 

Its afpedts for the Parliament, 

Foreboding your defeat and mifery ; 

As once they fought againft old Sifera 74 ? 

Was there a cloud that fpread the fkies, 

But bore our armies of allies ? 

While dreadful hofts of fire Hood forth 

'Mid baleful glimm'rings from the North ; 

Which plainly mows which part they join'd, 

For North's the minifter, ye mind ; 

Whence oft your quibblers in gazettes 

On Northern blafts have ftrain'd their wits 75 ; 

And think ye not the clouds know how 

To make the pun as well as you ? 

Did 



76 



M < F I N G A L : [CANTO 



Did there arife an apparition, 

But grinn'd forth ruin to fedition ? 

A death-watch, but has join'd our leagues, 

And click'd deftruclion to the Whigs ? 

Heard ye not, when the wind was fair, 

At night our or'tors in the air, 

That, loud as admiralty-libel, 

Read awful chapters from the bible, 

And death and deviltry denounc'd, 

And told you how you'd foon be trounc'd ? 

I fee to join our conqu'ring fide 

Heav'n, earth and hell at once allied ! 

See from your overthrow and end 

The Tories paradife afcend ; 

Like that new world that claims its ftation 

Beyond the final conflagration ! 

I fee the day that lots your fhare 

In utter darknefs and defpair ; 

The day of joy, when North, our Lord, 

His faithful fav'rites mall reward ! 

No Tory then mail fet before him 

Small wifh of 'Squire, or Juftice Quorum ; 



But 



second.] The Town-Meeting, p.m. 77 

But 'fore his unmiftaken eyes 

See Lordlhips, ports and penfions rife. 

Awake to gladnefs then, ye Tories, 

Th' unbounded profpecl: lies before us ? 

The pow'r difplay'd in Gage's banners 

Shall cut Amer'can lands to manors, 

And o'er our happy conquer'd ground 

Difpenfe eftates and titles round. 

Behold, the world fhall Hare at new fetts 

Of home-made earls in Maflachufetts 76 ; 

Admire, array'd in ducal taffels, 

Your Ol'vers, Hutchinfons and Vaffals 77 ; 

See join'd in minifterial work 

His grace of Albany and York 78 ! 

What Lordlhips from each carv'd eftate, 

On our New- York AfTembly wait ! 

What titled Jauncys 79 , Gales 80 and Billops 81 ; 

Lord Brulh 82 , Lord V/ilkins 83 and Lord Philips 84 ! 
In wide-fleev'd pomp of godly guife, 
What folemn rows of bifhops rife ! 
Aloft a card'nal's hat is fpread 

O'er punfter Cooper's 85 rev'rend head ! 

In 



78 M'Fingal: [canto 

In Vardell S6 , that poetic zealot, 
I view a lawn-bedizen'd prelate ! 
While mitres fall, as 'tis their duty, 
On heads of Chandler and Auchmuty 87 ! 
Knights, vifcounts, barons fhall ye meet 
As thick as pavements in the ftreet ! 
Ev'n I perhaps, heav'n fpeed my claim, 
Shall fix a Sir before my name. 
For titles all our foreheads ache ; 
For what bleft changes can they make ! 
Place rev'rence, grace and excellence 
Where neither claim'd the lead pretence ; 
Transform by patent's magic words 
Men, likeft devils, into Lords ; 
Whence commoners to peers tranflated 
Are justly faid to be created 83 ! 
Now where commiffioners ye faw 
Shall boards of nobles deal you law ! 
Long-robed comptrollers judge your rights, 
And tide-waiters ftart up in knights ! 
While Whigs fubdued in flavifh awe, 
Our wood fhall hew, our water draw, 

And 



second.] The Town-Meeting, p. m. 79 

And blcfs that mildnefs, when part hope, 
Which fav'd their necks from noofe of rope. 
For as to gain affiftance we 
Defign their Negroes to fet free ; 
For Whigs, when we enough fhall bang 'em, 
Perhaps 'tis better not to hang 'em ; 
Except their chiefs ; the vulgar knaves 
Will do more good preferv'd for flaves." 

" 'Tis well, Honorius cried, your fcheme 
Has painted out a pretty dream. 
We can't confute your fecond fight ; 
We fhall be flaves and you a knight : 
Thefe things muft come ; but I divine 
They'll come not in your day, or mine. 
But oh, my friends, my brethren, hear, 
And turn for once th' attentive ear. 
Ye fee how prompt to aid our woes, 
The tender mercies of our foes ; 
Ye fee with what unvaried rancour 
Still for our blood their minions hanker, 
Nor aught can fate their mad ambition, 
From us, but death, or worfe, fubmiifion. 

Shall 






80 M ' F i n g a l : [canto 

Shall thefe then riot in our fpoil, 
Reap the glad harveft of our toil, 
Rife from their country's ruin proud, 
And roll their chariot wheels in blood ? 
And can ye fleep while high outfpread 
Hangs defolation o'er your head ? 
See Gage with inaufpicious liar 
Has oped the gates of civil war ; 
When ftr'eams of gore from freemen flain, 
Encrimfon'd Concord's fatal plain ; 
Whofe warning voice with awful found, 
Still cries, like Abel's from the ground, 
And heav'n, attentive to its call, 
Shall doom the proud oppreflbr's fall 89 . 

Rife then, ere ruin fwift furprize, 

To victory, to vengeance rife ! 

Hark, how the diftant din alarms ! 

The echoing trumpet breathes, to arms ; 

From provinces remote, afar, 

The fons of glory rouze to war ; 

'Tis freedom calls ; th' enraptur'd found 

The Apalachian hills rebound 90 ; 

The 



second.] The Town-Meeting, p. m 

The Georgian fhores her voice fhall hear 91 , 

And ftart from lethargies of fear. 

From the parch'd zone, with glowing ray, 

Where pours the fun intenfer day, 

To mores where icy waters roll, 

And tremble to the dufky pole, 

Infpir'd by freedom's heav'nly charms, 

United nations wake to arms. 

The ftar of conqueft lights their way, 

And guides their vengeance on their prey — 

Yes, tho' tyrannic force oppofe, 

Still (hall they triumph o'er their foes, 

Till heav'n the happy land fhall blefs, 

With fafety, liberty and peace. 

And ye whofe fouls of daftard mould 
Start at the brav'ry of the bold ; 
To love your country who pretend, 
Yet want all fpirit to defend ; 
Who feel your fancies fo prolific, 
Engend'ring vifion'd whims terrific, 
O'er-run with horrors of coercion, 
Fire, blood and thunder in reverfion, 



King's 



82 



M ' F I N G A L : [CANTf 



King's ftandards, pill'ries, confifcations, 

And Gage's fcarecrow proclamations 92 , 

With all the trumpery of fear ; 

Hear bullets whizzing in your rear ; 

Who fcarce could rouze, if caught in fray, 

Prefence of mind to run away ; 

See nought but halters rife to view 

In all your dreams (and dreams are true); 

■ 
And while thefe phantoms haunt your brains, 

Bow down the willing neck to chains ; 

Heav'ns ! are ye fons of fires fo great, 

Immortal in the fields of fate, 

Who brav'd all deaths by land or fea, 

Who bled, who conquer'd to be free ! 

Hence, coward fouls, the word difgrace 

Of our forefathers' valiant race ; 

Hie homeward from the glorious field ; 

There turn the wheel, the diftafr wield ; 

' Aft what ye are, nor dare to ftain 

The warrior's arms with touch profane : 

There beg your more heroic wives 

To guard your children and your lives ; 

Beneath 



second.] The Town-Meeting, p.m. 83 

Beneath their aprons find a fcreen, 
Nor dare to mingle more with men." 

As thus he laid, the Tories' anger 
Could now reftrain itfelf no longer, 
Who tried before by many a freak, or 
Infulting noife, to Hop the fpeaker ; 
Swung th' unoil'd hinge of each pew-door ; 
Their feet kept muffling on the floor ; 
Made their disapprobation known 
By many a murmur, hum and groan, 
That to his fpeech fupplied the place 
Of counterpart in thorough-bafe : 
As bag-pipes, while the tune they breathe, 
Still drone and grumble underneath ; 
Or as the fam'd Demoilhenes 
Harangued the rumbling of the feas, 
Held forth with eloquence full grave 
To audience loud of wind and wave 93 ; 
And had a (tiller congregation 
Than Tories are to hear th' oration. 
But now the florin grew high and louder 
As nearer thunderings of a cloud are^ 

And 



84 M'Fingal: [canto 

And ev'ry foul with heart and voice 

Supplied his quota of the noife ; 

Each liftening ear was fet on torture 

Each Tory belPwing out, to order ; 

And fome, with tongue not low or weak, 

Were clam'ring fait, for leave to fpeak ; 

The moderator, with great vi'lence, 

The cufhion thump'd with " Silence, filence ; " 

The conftable to ev'ry prater 

BawPd out, " Pray hear the moderator 1 ' 4 ; " 

Some call'd the vote, and fome in turn 

Were fcreaming high, " Adjourn, adjourn : " 

Not chaos heard fuch jars and dailies 

When all the el'ments fought for places. 

Each bludgeon foon for blows was tim'd ; 

Each fist Hood ready cock'd and prim'd ; 

The ftorm each moment louder grew ; 

His fword the great M'Fingal drew, 

Prepar'd in either chance to fhare, 

To keep the peace, or aid the war. 

Nor lack'd they each poetic being, 

Whom bards alone are fkill'd in feeing ; 

Plum'd 



second.] The Town-Meeting, p.m. 85 

Plum'd Victory Hood perch'd on high, 

Upon the pulpit-canopy 93 . 

To join, as is her cuftom tried, 

Like Indians, on the flrongeft fide ; 

The Deftinies with fhears and diftaff, 

Drew near their threads of life to twill off 96 ; 

The Furies 'gan to feaft on blows 91 , 

And broken heads or bloody nofe ; 

When on a fudden from without 

Arofe a loud terrific fhout ; 

And ftrait the people all at once heard 

Of tongues an univerfal concert : 

Like ^Efop's times, as fable runs, 

When ev'ry creature talk'd at once 98 , 

Or like the variegated gabble 

That craz'd the carpenters of Babel 99 . 

Each party foon forgot the quarrel, 

And let the other go on parole ; 

Eager to know what fearful matter 

Had conjur'd up fuch gen'ral clatter ; 

And left the church in thin array, 

As tho' it had been lecture-day 10 °. 



Our 



86 M* Fin gal: [canto 

Our 'Squire M'Fingal ftraitway beckon'd 
The conftable to Hand his fecond, 
And Tallied forth with afpeft fierce 
The crowd aflembled to difperfe. 
The moderator out of view 
Beneath a bench had lain perdue ; 
Peep'd up his head to view the fray, 
Beheld the wranglers run away, 
And left alone with folemn face, 
Adjourn'd them without time or place. 



END of CANTO Second 



- —im'mm'mmam mm mm mm mm mm mm mm mm m 




M'FINGAL : 



CANTO THIRD 



O R 



The LIBERTY POLE. 



^^TOW arm'd with minifterial ire, 

Fierce Tallied forth our loyal 'Squire, 
And on his ftriding fteps attends, 
His defp'rate clan of Tory friends ; 
When fudden met his angry eye, 
A pole afcending thro' the fky, 
Which num'rous throngs of Whiggifh race 
Were raifing in the market-place ' ; 
Not higher fchool-boys kites afpire, 
Or royal mail or country fpire, 
Like fpears at Brobdignagian tilting 2 > 
Or Satan's walking-ftaff in Milton 3 ) 



And 






88 



M ' F I N G A l : [canto 



And on its top the flag unfurl'd, 
Waved triumph o'er the proflrate world, 
Infcribed with inconfiftent types 
Of liberty and thirteen {tripes 4 . 
Beneath, the croud without delay, 
The dedication-rites eflay, 
And gladly pay in antient fafhion, 
The ceremonies of libation ; 
While brifkly to each patriot lip 
Walks eager round th' infpiring flip 5 : 
Delicious draught, whofe pow'rs inherit 
The quinteflence of public fpirit ! 
Which whofo taftes, perceives his mind 
To nobler politics refined, 
Or rouz'd for martial controverfy, 
As from transforming cups of Circe b ; 
Or warm'd with Homer's ne&ar'd liquor, 
That fill'd the veins of gods with ichor 7 . 
At hand for new fupplies in ftore, 
The tavern opes its friendly door, 
Whence to and fro the waiters run, 
Like bucket-men at fires in town*. 



Then 



third. ] The Liberty Pole. 89 

Then with three fhouts that tore the fky, 
'Tis confecrate to Liberty ; 
To guard it from th' attacks of Tories, 
A grand committee cull'd of four is, 
Who foremoft on the patriot fpot, 
Had brought the flip and paid the fhot. 

By this, M'Fingal with his train, 
Advanc'd upon th' adjacent plain, 
And fierce with loyal rage poffefs'd, 
Pour'd forth the zeal, that fired his breaft. 
" What madbrain'd rebel gave commifTion, 
To raife this Maypole 9 of fedition ! 
Like Babel rear'd by bawling throngs, 
With like confufion too of tongues 10 , 
To point at heav'n and fummon down, 
The thunders of the Britifh crown 11 ? 
Say will this paltry pole fecure 
Your forfeit heads from Gage's pow'r? 
Attack'd by heroes brave and crafty, 
Is this to fland your ark of fafety ? 
Or driv'n by Scottifh laird and laddie 12 , 
Think ye to reft beneath its fhadow ? 

When 






9 o M'Fingal: [canto 

When bombs, like fiery ferpents, fly 

And balls move hiffing thro' the Iky, 

Will this vile pole, devote to freedom, 

Save like the Jewifh pole in Edom ; 

Or, like the brazen fnake of Mofes 13 , 

Cure your crack't fkulls and batter'd nofes ? 

Ye dupes to ev'ry factious rogue, 

Or tavernprating demagogue, 

Whofe tongue but rings, with found more full, 

On th' empty drumhead of his fkull, 

Behold you know not what noify fools 

Ufe you, worfe fimpletons, for tools ? 

For Liberty in your own by-fenfe 

Is but for crimes a patent licence ; 

To break of law th' Egyptian yoke, 

And throw the world in common flock, 

Reduce all grievances and ills 

To Magna Charta 14 of your wills, 

Eftablifh cheats and frauds and nonfenfe, 

Fram'd by the model of your confcience, 

Cry juftice down, as out of fafhion 

And fix its fcale of depreciation 10 , 



Defy 






third.] The Liberty Pole. 91 

Defy all creditors to trouble ye, 

And pafs new years of jewifh jubilee ; 

Drive judges out, like Aaron's calves, 

By jurifdictions of white Haves 17 , 

And make the bar and bench and fteeple, 

Submit t' our fov'reign Lord, the people ; 

AfTure each knave his whole afTets, 

By gen'ral amnelty of debts ; 

By plunder rife to pow'r and glory, 

And brand all property as tory 18 ; 

Expofe all wares to lawful feizures 

Of mobbers and monopolizers ; 

Break heads and windows and the peace, 

For your own int'refl and increafe ; 

Difpute and pray and fight and groan, 

For public good, and mean your own ; 

Prevent the laws, by fierce attacks, 

From quitting fcores upon your backs, 

Lay your old dread, the gallows, low, 

And feize the flocks 19 your antient foe ; 

And turn them, as convenient engines 

To wreak your patriotic vengeance ; 

While 



9 2 M'Fingal: [canto 

While all, your claims who underftand, 
Confefs they're in the owner's hand : 
And when by clamours and confufions, 
Your freedom's' grown a public nuifance, 
Cry, Liberty, with pow'rful yearning, 
As he does, fire, whofe houfe is burning, 
Tho' he already has much more, 
Than he can find occafion for. 
While every dunce, that turns the plains 
Tho' bankrupt in eftate and brains, 

By this new light transform'd to traitor, 

Forfakes his plow to turn dictator, 

Starts an haranguing chief of Whigs, 

And drags you by the ears, like pigs. 

All blufter arm'd with fa&ious licence, 

Transform'd at once to politicians ; 

Each leather-apron'd clown grown wife, 

Prefents his forward face t' advife, 

And tatter'd lcgiflators meet 

From ev'ry workfhop thro' the ftreet ; 
His goofe the tailor finds new ufe in, 
To patch and turn the conftitution ; 



The 



third.] The- Liberty Pole. 93 

The blackfmith comes with fledge and grate, 
To ironbind the wheels of ftate ; 
The quack forbears his patient's foufe, 
To purge the Council and the Houfe, 
The tinker quits his molds and doxies, 
To call afTembly-men at proxies 20 . 
From dunghills deep of fable hue, 
Your dirtbred patriots fpring to view, 
To wealth and pow'r and penfion rife, 
Like new-wing'd maggots chang'd to flies ; 
And fluttring round in proud parade 
Strut in the robe, or gay cockade. 
See Arnold quits for ways more certain, 
His bankrupt perjuries for his fortune, 
Brews rum no longer in his ftore, 
jockey and fkipper now no more ; 
Forfakes his warehoufes and docks, 
And writs of flander for the pox, 
And purg'd by patriotifm from fhame, 
Grows Gen'ral of the foremoft name 51 . 



Hiatus 22 . 



For 



9+ 



M ' F I N G A l : [canto 



For in this ferment of the ftream, 
The dregs have work'd up to the brim, 
And by the rule of topfyturvys, 
The fkum Hands fwelling on the furface. 
You've caus'd your pyramid t' afcend 
And fet it on the little end ; 
Like Hudibras 23 , your empire's made, 
Whofe crupper had o'ertopped his head ; 
You've pufh'd and turn'd the whole world up- 
Side down and got yourfelves a-top : 
While all the great ones of your ftate, 
Are crufh'd beneath the pop'lar weight, 
Nor can you boaft this prefent hour, 
The fhadow of the form of pow'r. 
For what's your Congrefs, or its end ? 
A power t' advife and recommend ; 
To call for troops, adjuft your quotas, 
And yet no foul is bound to notice" 4 ; 
To pawn your faith to th' utmoft limit, 
But cannot bind you to redeem it% 
And when in want no more in them lies, 
Than begging of your State-Aflemblies ; 



Can 



third.] The Liberty Pole. 95 

Can utter oracles of dread, 

Like friar Bacon's brazen head 26 , 

But fhould a fattion e'er difpute 'em, 

Has ne'er an arm to execute 'em. 

As tho' you chofe fupreme dictators, , 

And put them under confervators ; 

You've but purfued the felffame way, 

With Shakefpeare's Trinclo in the play 2T , 

" You fhall be viceroys here, 'tis true, 

But we'll be viceroys over you." 
What wild confufion hence mull enfue, 
Tho' common danger yet cements you ; 
So fome wreck'd veflel, all in matters, 
Is held up by furrounding waters, 
But flranded, when the prefTure ceafes, 
Falls by its rottennefs to pieces. 
And fall it mull — if wars were ended, 
You'll ne'er have fenfe enough to mend it ; 
But creeping on with low intrigues 
Like vermin of an hundred legs 23 , 
Will find as fhort a life affign'd, 

As all things elfe of reptile kind. 

Your 



96 M'Fingal: [canto 

Your Commonwealth's a common harlot, 

The property of ev'ry varlet, 

Which now in tafle and full employ, 

All forts admire, as all enjoy ; 

But foon a batter'd flrumpet grown, 

You'll curfe arid drum her out of town. 

Such is the government you chofe, 

For this you bade the world be foes, 

For this fo mark'd for dhTolution, 
You fcorn the Britifh conftitution" 9 , 

That conilitution, form'd by fages, 
The wonder of all modern ages : 
Which owns no failure in reality, 
Except corruption and venality ; 
And only proves the adage juft, 
That bell things fpoil'd corrupt to worft. 
So man fupreme in mortal flation, 
And mighty lord of this creation, 
When once his corfe is dead as herring, 
Becomes the moll offenfive carrion, 
And fooner breeds the plague, 'tis found, 
Than all beafts rotting 'bove the ground. 



Yet 



third.] The Liberty Pole. 97 

Yet for this gov'rnment, to difmay us, 

You've call'd up anarchy from chaos, 

With all the followers of her fchool, 

Uproar and rage and wild mifrule ; 

For whom this rout of Whigs diftracled 

And ravings dire of ev'ry crack'd head ; 

Thefe new-cart legiflative engines 

Of county-mufters and conventions, 

Committees vile of correfpondence 30 , 

And mobs, whofe tricks have almoft undone 's ; 

While reafon fails to check your courfe, 

And loyalty's kick'd out of doors, 

And folly, like inviting landlord, 

Hoifts on your poles her royal ftandard. 

While the king's friends in doleful dumps, 

Have worn their courage to the flumps, 

And leaving George in fad difailer, 

Moil finfully deny their mailer. 

What furies raged when you in fea, 

In fhape of Indians drown'd the tea 31 , 

When your gay fparks, fatigued to watch it 32 , 

Affirmed the moggifon 33 and hatchet. 

With 






98 M ' F I N G A l : [canto 

With wampom'd blankets hid their laces 34 , 

And like their fweethearts, primed their faces 35 : 

While not a redcoat 35 dar'd oppofe, 

And fcarce a Tory fhow'd his nofe, 

While Hutchinfon for fure retreat, 

Manouvred to his country feat, 

And thence affrighted in the fads, 

Stole off bareheaded thro' the woods 37 ! 

Have you not rous'd your mobs to join, 

And make Mandamus-men refign 38 , 

Call'd forth each duffil-drefs'd curmudgeon, 

With dirty trowfers and white bludgeon, 

Forc'd all our Councils thro' the land, 

To yield their necks to your command 39 ; 

While palenefs marks their late difgraces 

Thro' all their rueful length of faces ? 

Have you not caufed as woful work, 

In loyal city of New York 40 , 

When all the rabble well cockaded, 

In triumph thro' the ftreets paraded ; 

And mobb'd the Tories, feared their fpoufes, 

And ranfack'd all the cuftom-houfes 41 , 

Made 



third.] The Liberty Pole. 99 

Made fuch a tumult, blufter, jarring, 

That mid the clafh of tempefts warring, 

Smith's weathercock 42 with veers forlorn, 

Could hardly tell which way to turn ; 

Burnt effigies of th' higher powers 43 , 

Contriv'd in planetary hours, 

As witches with clay-images, 

Deftroy or torture whom they pleafe ; 

Till fired with rage, th' ungrateful club 

Spared not your belt, friend, Belzebub 44 , 

O'erlook'd his favours and forgot 

The rev'rence due his cloven foot, 

And in the felffame furnace frying, 

Burn'd him and North and Bute and Tryon 45 r 

Did you not in as vile and mallow way, 

Fright our poor Philadelphian, Galloway, 

Your Congrefs when the daring ribald 

Belied, berated and befcribbled ? 

What ropes and halters did you fend, 

Terrific emblems of his end, 

Till leaft he'd hang in more than effigy, 

Fled in a fog the trembling refugee 46 ? 

Now 



IOO 



M'Fingal : [canto 



Now rifing in progreffion fatal, ^ 
Have you not ventur'd to give battle ? 
When treafon chaced our heroes troubled, 
With rufty gun and leathern doublet, 
Turn'd all ftonewalls and groves and bufhes, 
To batt'ries arm'd with blunderbufles, 
And with deep wounds that fate portend, 
Gaul'd many a reg'lar's latter end, 
Drove them to Bofton, as in jail, 
Confined without mainprize or bail 47 . 
Were not thefe deeds enough betimes, 
To heap the meafure of your crimes, 
But in this loyal town and dwelling, 
You raife thefe enfigns of rebellion ? 
'Tis done ; fair Mercy fhuts her door ; 
And Vengeance now mall fleep no moie 4s ; 
Rife then, my friends, in terror rife, 
And wipe this fcandal from the fkies ! 
You'll fee their Dagon 49 , tho' well jointed, 
Will fink before the Lord's anointed 50 , 
And like old Jericho's proud wall, 
Before our ram's horns proftrate fall 51 ." 



This 



third.] The Liberty Pole. ioi 

This faid, our 'Squire, yet undifmay'd, 
Call'd forth the Conftable to aid, 
And bade him read in nearer ftation, 
The riot-a6l and proclamation ; 
Who now advancing tow'rd the ring, 
Began, " Our fov'reign Lord the King " — 52 
When thoufand clam'rous tongues he hears, 
And clubs and Hones affail his ears ; 
To fly was vain, to fight was idle, 
By foes encompafs'd in the middle ; 
In ftratagem his aid he found, 
And fell right craftily to ground ; 
Then crept to feek an hiding place, 

'Twas all he could, beneath a brace ; 

* 

Where foon the conq'ring crew efpied him, 
And where he lurk'd, they caught and tied him. 

At once with refolution fatal, 
Both Whigs and Tories rufh'd to battle ; 
Inftead of weapons, either band 
Seiz'd on fuch arms, as came to hand. 
And as fam'd Ovid paints th* adventures 
Of wrangling Lapithae and Centaurs 53 , 

Who 



102 



M * F i n g a l : [canto 



Who at their feaft, by Bacchus 54 led, 
Threw bottles at each other's head, 
And thefe arms failing in their fcuffles, 
Attack'd with handirons, tongs and fhovels : 
So clubs and billets, flaves and ftones 
Met fierce, encount'ring ev'ry fconcc, 
And cover'd o'er with knobs and pains 
Each void receptacle for brains ; 
Their clamours rend the hills around, 
And earth rebellows with the found ; 
And many a groan increas'd the din 
From broken nofe and batter'd fhin. 
M'Fingal rifing at the word, 

Drew forth his old militia fword ; 

Thrice cried, " King George," as erft in diftrefs 

Romancing heroes did their miftrefs, 

And brandifhing the blade in air, 

Struck terror thro' th' oppofing war. 

The Whigs, unfafe within the wind 

Of fuch commotion fhrunk behind. 

With whirling Heel around addrefs'd, 

Fierce thro' their thickeft throng he prefs'd, 

(Who 



THIRD 



.] The Liberty Pole. 103 



(Who roll'd on either fide in arch, 
Like Red-fea waves in Ifrael's march) 
And like a meteor rufhing through, 
Struck on their pole a vengeful blow. 
Around, the Whigs, of clubs and ftones 
Difcharg'd whole vollies in platoons, 
That o'er in whittling terror fly, 
But not a foe dares venture nigh. 
And now perhaps with conqueft crown'd, 
Our 'Squire had fell'd their pole to ground ; 
Had not fome Pow'r, a Whig at heart, 
Defcended down and took their part ; 
(Whether 'twere Pallas 55 , Mars 56 , or Iris 57 , 
'Tis fcarce worth while to make enquiries) 
Who at the nick of time alarming, 
Aflumed the graver form of Chairman ; 
Addrefs'd a Whig, in ev'ry fcene 
The ftouteft wreftler on the green, 
And pointed where the fpade was found, •* 
Late ufed to fix their pole in ground, 
And urg'd with equal arms and might 
To dare our 'Squire to fingle fight 58 . 



The 



104 M f F i n g a l : [canto 

The Whig thus arm'd, untaught to yield, 

Advanc'd tremendous to the field ; 

Nor did M'Fingal fhun the foe, 

But flood to brave the defp'rate blow ; 

While all the party gaz'd fufpended, 

To fee the deadly combat ended. 

And Jove in equal balance weigh'd 

The fword againft the brandifh'd fpade, 

He weigh'd ; but lighter than a dream, 

The fword flew up and kick'd the beam, 

Our 'Squire on tiptoe rifing fair, 

Lifts high a noble flroke in air, 

Which hung not, but like dreadful engines 

Defcended on the foe in vengeance. 

But ah, in danger with difhonor 

The fword perfidious fails its owner ; 

That fword, which oft had flood its ground 

By huge trainbands encompafs'd round, 

Or on the^bench, with blade right loyal 59 , 

Had won the day at many a trial, 

Of flones and clubs had brav'd th' alarms, 

Shrunk from thefe new Vulcanian arms 6 ". 

The 



third.] The Liberty Pole. 105 

The fpade fo tempcr'd from the fledge, 

Nor keen nor folid harm'd its edge, 

Now met it from his arm of might 

Defcending with fteep force to finite 01 ; 

The blade fnapp'd fhort — and from his hand 

With ruft embrown'd the glitt'ring fand. 

Swift turn'd M'Fingal at the view, 

And call'd for aid th' attendant crew, 

In vain ; the Tories all had run, 

When fcarce the fight was well begun ; 

Their fetting wigs he faw decreas'd 

Far in th' horizon tow'rd the weft. 

Amaz'd he view'd the fhameful fight, 

And faw no refuge but in flight : 

But age unweildy check'd his pace, 

Tho' fear had wing'd his flying race ; 

For not a trifling prize at ftake ; 

No lefs than great M'Fingal's back. 

With legs and arms he work'd his courfe, 

Like rider that outgoes his horfe, 

And labour'd hard to get away, as 

Old Satan ftruggling on thro' chaos 65 : 

Till 



1 06 M'Fingal: [canto 

Till looking back he fpied in rear 

The fpade-arm'd chief advanc'd too near. 

Then ftopp'd and feiz'd a ftone that lay, 

An antient land-mark near the way ; 

Nor mall we, as old Bards have done, 

Affirm it weigh'd an hundred ton 63 : 

But fuch a ftone as at a ftiift 

A modern might fuffice to lift, 

Since men, to credit their enigmas, 

Are dwindled down to dwarfs and pigmies, 

And giants exiled with their cronies, 

To Brobdingnags and Patagonias 64 . 

But while our hero turn'd him round, 

And ftoop'd to raife it from the ground, 

The deadly fpade difcharg'd a blow 

Tremendous on his rear below : 

His bent knee fail'd, and void of ftrength, 

Stretch'd on the ground his manly length ; 

Like antient oak o'erturn'd he lay, 

Or tow'rs to tempefts fall'n a prey, 

And more things elfe — but all men know 'em, 

If flightiy vers'd in Epic Poem. 

At 



third.] The Liberty Pole. 107 

At once the crew, at this fad crifis, 
Fall on and bind him ere he rifes, 
And with loud fhouts and joyful foul 
Conduct him pris'ner to the pole. 

When now the Mob in lucky hour, 
Had got their en'mies in their pow'r, 
They firft proceed by wife command 
To take the conftable in hand. 
Then from the pole's fublimeft top 
They fpeeded to let down the rope, 
At once its other end in hafte bind, 
And make it faft upon his waiflband, 
Till like the earth, as ftretch'd on tenter, 
He hung felf-balanc'd on his center 65 . 
Then upwards all hands hoifting fail, 
They fwung him, like a keg of ale, 
Till to the pinnacle fo fair, 
He rofe like meteor in the air. 
As Socrates of old at firft did 
To aid philofophy get hoifted, 
And found his thoughts flow ftrangely clear, 
Swung in a bafket in mid air 66 : 

Our 



1 08 M'Fingal: [canto 

Our culprit thus in purer fky, 

With like advantage rais'd his eye ; 

And looking forth in profpecl: wide 

His Tory errors clearly fpied, 

And from his elevated ftation, 

With bawling voice began addreffing. 

" Good gentlemen and friends and kin, 

For heav'n's fake hear, if not for mine ! 

I here renounce the Pope, the Turks, 

The King, the Devil and all their works ; 

And will, fet me but once at eafe, 

Turn Whig or Chriftian, what you please ; 

And always mind your laws as juftly ; 

Should I live long as old Methus'lah, 

I'll never join with Britifh rage, 

Nor help Lord North, or Gen'ral Gage, 

Nor lift my gun in future fights, 

Nor take away your charter'd rights, 

Nor overcome your new-rais'd levies, 

Deilroy your towns, nor burn your navies, 

Nor cut your poles down while I've breath, 

Tho' rais'd more thick than hatchel-teeth 67 : 

But 



third.] The Liberty Pole. 109 

But leave king George and all his elves 
To do their conq'ring work themfelves." 

This faid, they lower'd him down in ftate, 
Spread at all points, like falling cat ; 
But took a vote firft on the queftion, 
That they'd accept this full confeflion, 
And to their fellowfhip and favor, 
Reftore him on his good behaviour. 

Not fo, our 'Squire fubmits to rule, 
But flood heroic as a mule. 
" You'll find it all in vain, quoth he, 
To play your rebel tricks on me. 
All punifhments the world can render, 
Serve only to provoke th' offender; 
The will's confirm'd by treatment horrid, 
As hides grow harder when they're curried. 
No man e'er felt the halter draw, 
With good opinion of the law ; 
Or held in method orthodox 
His love of juftice in the flocks 6S ; 

Or 



no M'Fingal: [canto 

Or faiFd to lofe by fheriff's fhears 

At once his loyalty and ears 69 . 

Have you made Murray 10 look lefs big, 

Or fmoak'd old Williams to a Whig"? 

Did our mobb'd Oliver 72 quit his ftation, 

Or heed his vows of resignation ? 

Has Rivington, in dread of ftripes, 

Ceas'd lying fince you Hole his types 13 ? 

And can you think my faith will alter, 

By tarring, whipping, or the halter ? 

I'll Hand the worft ; for recompence 

I truft King George and Providence. 

And when, our conqueft gain'd, I come, 

Array'd in law and terror home, 

You'll rue this inaufpicious morn, 

And curfe the day you e'er were born, 

In Job's high ftyle of imprecations, 

With all his plagues, without his patience." 

Meanwhile befide the pole, the guard 

A Bench of Juftice had prepar'd, 

Where fitting round in awful fort, 

The grand Committee hold their court 74 ; 

While 



third. ] The Liberty Pole. hi 

While all the crew in filent awe, 

Wait from their lips the lore of law. 

Few moments with deliberation, 

They hold the folemn confultation, 

When foon in judgment all agree, 

And Clerk declares the dread decree ; 

" That 'Squire M'Fingal having grown, 

The vileft Tory in the town, 

And now on full examination, 

Convicted by his own confeflion, 

Finding no tokens of repentance, 

This Court proceed to render fentence : 

That firft the Mob a flip-knot fmgle 

Tie round the neck of faid M'Fingal ; 

And in due form do tar him next, 

And feather, as the law dire&s ; 

Then thro' the town attendant ride him, 

In cart with Conftable befide him, 

And having held him up to fhame, 

Bring to the pole from whence he came 7 V 

Forthwith the croud proceed to deck 
With halter'd noofe M'Fingal's neck, ' 

While 



I 12 



M 'Fin gal : [canto 



While he, in peril of his foul, 

Stood tied half-hanging to the pole ; 

Then lifting high the pond'rous jar, 

Pour'd o'er his head the fmoaking tar : 

With lefs profufion erft was fpread 

The Jewish oil on royal head 76 , 

That down his beard and veftments ran, 

And cover'd all his outward man. 

As when (fo Claudian fings) the Gods 

And earth-born giants fell at odds", 

The flout Enceladus 18 in malice 

Tore mountains up to throw at Pallas ; 

And as he held them o'er his head, 

The river from their fountains fed, 

Pour'd down his back its copious tide, 

And wore its channels in his hyde : 

So from the high rais'd urn the torrents, 

Spread down his fide their various currents ; 

His flowing wig, as next the brim, 

Firft met and drank the fable ftream ; 

Adown his vifage item and grave, 

Roll'd and adhered the vifcid wave ; 



With 



third.] The Liberty Pole. 113 

With arms depending as he flood, 
Each cuff capacious holds the flood ; 
From nofe and chin's remoteft end, 
The tarry icicles depend ; 
Till all o'erfpread, with colors gay- 
He glitter'd to the weftern ray, 
Like fleet-bound trees in wintry fkies, 
Or Lapland idol carv'd in ice. 
And now the feather-bag difplay'd, 
Is wav'd in triumph o'er his head, 
And fpreads him o'er with feathers miffive, 
And down upon the tar adhefive : 
Not Maia's fon, with wings for ears 79 , 
Such plumes around his vifage wears ; 
Nor Milton's fix wing'd angel 80 gathers, 
Such fuperfluity of feathers. 
Till all compleat appears our 'Squire 
Like Gorgon or Chimera dire 81 ; 
Nor more could boaft on Plato's plan 
To rank amid the race of man, 
Or prove his claim to human nature, 

As a two-legg'd, unfeather'd creature 8 ?. 

Then 



II4 M' Fin gal: [canto 

Then on the two-wheel'd car of ftate, 
They rais'd our grand Duumvirate 83 . 
And as at Rome a like committee, 
That found an owl within their city, 
With folemn rites and fad procemons, 
At ev'ry fhrine perform'd luftrations ; 
And leaft infe&ion mould abound 
From prodigy with face fo round, 
All Rome attends him thro' the ftreet, 
In triumph to his country-feat 84 ; 

With like devotion all the choir 

Paraded round our feather'd 'Squire ; 

In front the martial mufic comes 

Of horns and fiddles, fifes and drums, 

With jingling found of carriage bells, 

And treble creak of rufted wheels ; 

Behind, the croud in lengthen'd row, 

With grave proceffion clofed the fhow ; 

And at fit periods ev'ry throat 
Combined in univerfal fhout, 
And hail'd great Liberty in chorus, 
Or bawl'd, Confufion to the Tories. 



Not 



third.] The Liberty Pole. 115 

Not louder florin the welkin braves, 
From clamors of conflicting waves ; 
Lefs dire in Lybian wilds the noife 
When rav'ning lions lift their voice ; 
Or triumphs at town-meetings made, 
On paffing votes to reg'late trade 85 . 

Thus having borne them round the town, 
Laft at the pole they fet them down, 
And tow'rd the tavern take their way, 
To end in mirth the feilal day. 

And now the Mob difpers'd and gone, 
Left 'Squire and Conflable alone. 
The Conflable in rueful cafe 
Lean'd fad and folemn o'er a brace. 
And fail befide him, cheek by jowl, 
Stuck 'Squire M'Fingal 'gainfl the pole, 
Glued by the tar t' his rear applied, 
Like barnacle 80 on veffel's fide. 
But tho' his body lack'd phyfician, 
His fpirit was in worfe condition. 

He 



u6 M'Fingal: [canto 

He found his fears of whips and ropes, 

By many a drachm outweigh'd his hopes. 

As men in goal without mainprize, 

View ev'ry thing with other eyes, 

And all goes wrong in church and ftate, 

Seen thro' perfpeftive of the grate : 

So now M'Fingal's fecond-fight 

Beheld all things in difPrent light ; 

His vifual nerve, well purg'd with tar, 

Saw all the coming fcenes of war. 

As his prophetic foul grew ftronger, 

He found he could hold in no longer ; 

Firft from the pole, as fierce he fhook, 

His wig from pitchy durance broke, 

His mouth unglued, his feathers flutter'd, 

His tarr'd fkirts crack'd, and thus he utter'd, 

" Ah, Mr. Conftable, in vain 

We ftrive 'gainft wind and tide and rain ! 

Behold my doom ! this feather'd omen 

Portends what difmal times are coming. 

Now future fcenes before my eyes, 

And fecond-fighted forms arife ; 

I hear 



third.] The Liberty Pole. ii 

I hear a voice that calls away, 
And cries, the Whigs will win the day 87 ; 
My beck'ning Genius gives command, 
And bids us fly the fatal land ; 
Where changing name and confutation, 
Rebellion turns to revolution 83 , 
While Loyalty opprefs'd in tears, 
Stands trembling for its neck and ears. 
Go, fummon all our brethren greeting, 
To mufter at our ufual meeting. 
There my prophetic voice mall warn 'em, 
Of all things future that concern 'em, 
And fcenes difclofe on which, my friend, 
Their conduct, and their lives depend : 
There I — but firft 'tis more of ufe, 
From this vile pole to fet me loofe ; 
Then go with cautious Heps and fteady, 
While I fleer home and make all ready." 

END of CANTO Third. 



M'FINGAL : 



CANTO FOURTH 



OR 



The VISION. 



'^TOW night came down, and rofe full foon 

That patronefs of rogues, the Moon ; 
Beneath whofe kind, protecting ray 
Wolves, brute and human, prowl for prey. 
The honeft world all fnored in chorus, 
While owls, and ghofts and thieves and Tories, 
Whom erft the mid-day fun had aw'd, 
Crept from their lurking holes abroad. 
On cautious hinges, flow and {tiller 
Wide oped the great M'Fingal's cellar l , 
Where lhut from prying eyes in clufter, 
The Tory Pandemonium 2 mufter. 



Their 



fourth.] The Vision. 119 

Their chiefs all fitting round defcried are, 
On kegs of ale and feats of cyder ; 
When firft M'Fingal dimly feen 
Rofe folemn from the turnep-bin 3 . 
Nor yet his form had wholly loft 
The original brightnefs it could boaft 4 , 
Nor lefs appear'd than Juftice Quorum, 
In feather'd majefty before 'em 5 . 
Adown his tarftreak'd vifage, clear 
Fell glift'ning fail th' indignant tear, 
And thus his voice, in mournful wife, 
Purfued the prologue of his fighs. 

" Brethren and friends, the glorious band 
Of loyalty in rebel land ! 
It was not thus you've feen me fitting 
Return'd in triumph from town-meeting, 
When bluftring Whigs were put to ftand, 
And votes obey'd my guiding hand, 
And new commiffions pleas'd my eyes ; 
Bleft days, but ah, no more to rife ! 
Alas, againft my better light 
And optics fure of fecond-fight 6 , 

My 



I20 M'Fingal: [canto 

My ftubborn foul in error ftrong, 

Had faith in Hutchinfon 7 too long. 

See what brave trophies ftill we bring 

From all our battles for the king ; 

And yet thefe plagues now pall before us, 

Are but our entring wedge of forrows. 

I fee in glooms tempeftuous Hand 

The cloud impending o'er the land ; 

That cloud, which ftill beyond their hopes 

Serves all our orators with tropes, 

Which tho' from our own vapors fed, 

Shall point its thunders on our head ! 

I fee the Mob, beflipp'd 8 in taverns, 

Hunt us, like wolves, thro' wilds and caverns ! 

What dungeons rife t' alarm our fears, 

What horfewhips whiftle round our ears ! 

Tar yet in embryo in the pine 9 

Shall run, on Tories backs to mine ; 

Trees rooted fair in groves of fallows 

Are growing for our future gallows ; 

And geefe unhatch'd, when pluck'd in fray, 

Shall rue the feath'ring of that day 10 . 

For 



fourth.] The Vision. 121 

For me, before thefe fatal days 
I mean to fly th' accurfed place, 
And follow omens, which of late 
Have warn'd me of impending fate ; 
Yet pafs'd unnoticed o'er my view, 
Till fad conviction proved them true ; 
As prophecies of beft intent, 
Are only heeded in th* event. 

For late in vifions of the night 

The gallows flood before my light ; 

I faw its ladder heav'd on end ; 

I faw the deadly rope defcend ; 

And m its noofe that wav'ring fwang, 

Friend Malcolm 11 hung, or feem'd to hang. 

How changed from him, who bold as lyon, 

Stood Aid-de-Camp to Governor Tryon, 

Made rebels vanifh once, like witches, 

And faved his life, but dropp'd his breeches 12 . 

I fcarce had made a fearful bow, 

And trembling afk'd him, " How d'ye do." 

When lifting up his eyes fo wide, 

His eyes alone, his hands were tied ; • 

With 



122 M'Fingal: [canto 

With feeble voice, as fpirits ufe, 
Now almoft choak'd with gripe of noofe ; 
" Ah 13 fly, my friend, he cried, efcape, 
And keep yourfelf from this fad fcrape ; 
Enough you've talk'd and writ and plann'd ; 
The Whigs have got the upper hand. 
Dame Fortune's wheel has turn'd fo fhort, 
It plung'd us fairly in the dirt ; 
Could mortal arm our fears have ended, 
This arm (and shook it) had defended. 
But longer now 'tis vain to flay ; 
See ev'n the Reg'lars run away : 

Wait not till things grow defperater, 

For hanging is no laughing matter : 

This might your grandfires' fortunes tell you on 

Who both were hang'd the laft rebellion 14 ; 

Adventure then no longer ftay, 

But call your friends and run away. 

For lo, thro' deepeft glooms of night 

I come to aid thy fecond-fight, 

Difclofe the plagues that round us wait 

And wake the dark decrees of fate. 

Afcend 



fourth.] The Vision. 123 

Afcend this ladder whence unfurl'd 
The curtain opes of t'other world, 
For here new worlds their fcenes unfold, 
Seen from this backdoor of the old 15 . 
As when iEneas 1B rifqued his life, 
Like Orpheus venturing for his wife 17 , 
And bore in fhow his mortal carcafe, 
Thro* realms of Erebus and Orcus 18 , 
Then in the happy fields Elyfian, 
Saw all his embryon fons in virion : 
As mown by great archangel, Michael, 
Old Adam faw the world's whole fequel, 
And from the mount's extended fpace, 
The rifing fortunes of his race 10 ; 
So from this flage fhalt thou behold, 
The war its coming fcenes unfold, 
Rais'd by my arm to meet thine eye ; 
My Adam, thou, thine Angel, I. 
But firft my pow'r for vifions bright, 
Mull cleanfe from clouds thy mental fight, 
Remove the dim fufFufions fpread, 
Which bribes and fal'ries there have bred ; 

And 



1 24 M'Fingal: [canto 

And from the well of Bute infufe, 
Three genuine drops of Highland dews, 
To purge, like euphrafy and rue 20 , 
Thine eyes, for much thou haft to view. 

Now freed from Tory darknefs raife 
Thy head and fpy the coming days ; 
For lo before our fecond-fight, 
The Continent afcends in light ; 
From north to fouth what gath'ring fwarms, 
Increafe the pride of rebel arms ! 
Thro' ev'ry State our legions brave, 
Speed gallant marches to the grave, 
Of battling Whigs the frequent prize, 
While rebel trophies flain the fkies 21 . 
Behold o'er northern realms afar, 
Extend the kindling flames of war ! 
See fam'd St. John's and Montreal, 
Doom'd by Montgom'ry's arm to fall 22 ! 
Where Hudfon with majeflic fway, 
Thro' hills difparted plows his way ; 
Fate fpreads on Bemus' Heights alarms, 
And pours deftrudlion on our arms 23 ; 

There 



fourth.] The Vision. 125 

There Bennington's, enfanguin'd plain 24 , 
And Stony-Point, the prize of Wayne 25 . 
Behold near Del'ware's icy roar, 
Where morning dawns on Trenton's ihore, 
While Heflians fpread their Chriftmas feafts, 
Rufh rude thele uninvited guefts ; 
Nor aught avail, to Whigs a prize, 
Their martial whifkers' grifly fize 26 . 
On Princeton plains our heroes yield, 
And Ipread in flight the vanquifh'd field, 
While fear to Mawhood's heels puts on 
Wings, wide as worn by Maia's fon 2T . 
Behold the Pennfylvanian more, 
Enrich'd with ftreams of Britifh gore 28 ; 
Where many a vet'ran chief in bed 
Of honor refts his flumbring head, 
And in foft vales in land of foes, 
Their wearied virtue finds repofe 29 . 
See plund'ring Dunmore's negro band 
Fly headlong from Virginia's ftrand 30 ; 
And far on fouthern hills our coufins, 
The Scotch McDonalds fall by dozens 31 ; 

Or 



126 M i F I N G A l : [canto 

Or where King's Mountain lifts its head, 
Our ruin'd bands in triumph led 32 ! 
Behold o'er Tarlton's bluft'ring train, 
The Rebels ftretch the captive chain 33 ! 
Afar near Eutaw's fatal fprings 
Defcending VicYry fpreads her wings 34 ! 
Thro' all the land in various chace, 
We hunt the rainbow of fuccefs ; 
In vain ! their Chief fuperior ftill 
Eludes our force with Fabian fkill 35 , 
Or fwift defcending by furprize, 
Like Pruffia's eagle fweeps the prize." 

I look'd, nor yet, oppreft with fears, 
Gave credit to my eyes or ears, 
But held the views an empty dream, 
On Berkley's immaterial fcheme 3G ; 
And pondring fad with troubled breaft 
At length my rifmg doubts exprefs'd. 
" Ah whither, thus by rebels fmitten, 
Is fled th' omnipotence of Britain 37 , 
Or fail'd its ufual guard to keep, 
Gone truanting or fall'n afleep ; 

As 



fourth.] The Vision. 127 

As Baal his prophets left confounded, 

And bawling vot'ries galh'd and wounded 3S ? 

Did not, retir'd to bow'rs Elyfian, 

Great Mars leave with her his commiffion, 

And Neptune erft in treaty free, 

Give up dominion o'er the fea 39 . ? 

Elfe where's the faith of famed orations 40 , 

Addrefs, debate and proclamations, 

Or courtly fermon, laureat ode, 

And ballads on the v/atry God 41 ; 

With whofe high /trains great George enriches 

His eloquence of gracious fpeeches 42 ? 

Not faithful to our Highland eyes, 

Thefe deadly forms of vifion rife ; 

But fure fome Whig-infpiring fprite 

Now palms delufion on our light. 

I'd fcarcely trull a tale fo vain, 

Should revelation prompt the ilrain, 

Or Offian's ghoft the fcenes rehearfe, 

In all the melody of Erfe." 43 

" Too long, quoth Malcolm, with confufion 

You've dwelt already in delufion, 

As 



128 M ' F I N G A l : [canto 

As Sceptics, of all fools the chief, 

Hold faith in creeds of unbelief. 

I come to draw thy veil a fide 

Of error, prejudice and pride. 

Fools love deception, but the wife 

Prefer fad truths to pleafmg lies. 

For know thofe hopes can ne'er fucceed 

That truft on Britain's breaking reed. 

For weak'ning long from bad to worfe 

By fatal atrophy of purfe, 

She feels at length with trembling heart, 

Her foes have found her mortal part. 

As famed Achilles, dipped by Thetis 

In Styx, as fung in antient ditties, 

Grew all cafeharden'd o'er like fteel, 

Invulnerable, fave his heel 44 , 

And laugh'd at fwords and fpears, as fquibs, 

And all difeafes, but the kibes 45 ; 

Yet met at laft his fatal wound, 

By Paris' arrow nail'd to ground 46 : 

So Britain's boafted ftrength deferts, 

In thefe her empire's utmoft fkirts, 

Remov'd 



fourth.] The Vision. 129 

Remov'd beyond her fierce impreflions, 

And atmofphere of omniprefence ; 

Nor to thefe fhores remoter ends, 

Her dwarf omnipotence extends : 

Whence in this turn of things fo ftrange, . 

'Tis time our principles to change. 

For vain that boafted faith, which gathers 

No perquifite, but tar and feathers, 

No pay, but Whig's infulting malice, 

And no promotion, but the gallows. 

I've long enough Hood firm and fteady, 

Half hang'd for loyalty already : 

And could I fave my neck and pelf 

I'd turn a flaming Whig myfelf, 

And quit this caufe and courfe and calling, 

Like rats that fly from houfe that's falling. 

But fince, obnoxious here to fate, 

This faving wifdom comes too late, 

Our nobleft hopes already croft, 

Our fal'ries gone, our titles loft, 

Doom'd to worfe fufF'rings from the mob 

Than Satan's furg'ries ufcd on Job 47 ; 

What 



I3 o M'Fingal: [canto 

What more remains but now with Height, 
What's left of us to fave by flight ? 

Now raife thine eyes for vifions true 

Again afcending wait thy view." 

I look'd and clad in early light, 

The fpires of Bofton rofe to fight ; 

The morn o'er eaftern hills afar, 

Illum'd the varying fcenes of war. 

Great Howe had long fince in the lap 

Of Loring taken out his nap, 

And with the fun's afcending ray, 

The cuckold came to take his pay 43 . 

When all th' encircling hills around, 

With inftantaneous breaftworks crown'd, 

With pointed thunders met his fight, 

By magic rear'd the former night. 

Each fummit, far as eye commands, 

Shone peopled with rebellious bands 49 . 

Aloft their tow'ring heroes rife, 

As Titans erft aifail'd the ikies 50 , 

Leagued with fuperior force to prove, 

The fcepter'd hand of Britifh Jove. 

Mounds 



fourth.] The Vision. 131 

Mounds piled on hills afcended fair 
With batt'ries placed in middle air, 
That rais'd like angry clouds on high 
Seem'd like th' artill'ry of the fky, 
And hurl'd their fiery bolts amain, 
In thunder on the trembling plain. 
I faw along the proftrate ftrand. 
Our baffled Gen'rals quit the land, 
And fwift as frighted mermaids flee, 
T' our boafted element, the fea 51 ! 
Relign that long contefted fhore, 
Again the prize of rebel-power, 
And tow'rd their town of refuge fly, 
Like convict Jews condemn'd to die 53 . 

Then tow'rd the north, I turn'd my eyes, 
Where Saratoga's heights a rife, 
And faw our chofen vet'ran band, 
Defcend in terror o'er the land 53 ; 
T' oppofe this fury of alarms, 
Saw all New-England wake to arms, 
And ev'ry Yanky full of mettle, 

Swarm forth, like bees at found of kettle 54 . 

Not 



132 M'Fingal: [canto 

Not Rome, when Tarquin raped Lucretia ,0 , 

Saw wilder muft'ring of militia. 

Thro' all the woods and plains of fight, 

What mortal battles fill'd my fight, 

While Britifh corfes ftrew'd the fhore, 

And Hudfon ting'd his ftreams with gore ! 

What tongue can tell the difmal day, 

Or paint the party-color'd fray ; 

When yeomen left their fields afar, 

To plow the crimfon plains of war ; 

When zeal to fwords transformed their fhares, 

And turn'd their pruning-hooks to fpears, 

Chang'd tailor's geefe to guns and ball, 

And ftretch'd to pikes the cobler's awl 50 ; 

While hunters fierce like mighty Nimrod, 

Made on our troops a daring inroad ; 

And levelling fquint on barrel round, 

Brought our beau-officers to ground 57 ; 

While rifle-frocks fent Gen'rals cap'ring, 

And redcoats fhrunk from leathern apron, 

And epaulette and gorget run 

From whinyard brown and rufty gun : 

While 



fourth.] The Vision. 133 

While funburnt wigs in high command, 
Rufh furious on our frighted band, 
And antient beards and hoary hair, 
Like meteors ftream in troubled air 58 . 
With locks unfhorn not Samfon more 
Made ufelefs all the mow of war, 
Nor fought with alTes'jaw for rarity, 
With more fuccefs or Angularity 59 . 
I faw our vet'ran thoufands yield 
And pile their mufkets on the field, 
And peafant guards in rueful plight 
March off our captured bands from fight ; 
While ev'ry rebel-fife in play, 
To Yanky-doodle tun'd its lay, 
And like the mufic of the fpheres, 
Mellifluous footh'd their vanquifh'd ears 60 . 

" Alas, faid I, what baleful flar, 
Sheds fatal influence on the war, 
And who that chofen Chief of fame, 
That heads this grand parade of fhame ? " 

" There fee how fate, great Malcolm cried, 
Strikes with its bolts the tow'rs of pride. 

Behold 



: 3 + 



M'Fingal: [canto 



,63 . 



Behold that martial Macaroni 61 , 
Compound of Phcebus and Bellona 6 ' 2 , 
With warlike fword and fingfong lay, 
Equipp'd ahke for feaft or fray, 
Where equal wit and valour join ; 
This, this is he, the famed Burgoyne' 
Who pawn'd his honor and commimon, 
To coax the Patriots to fubmimon, 
By fongs and balls fecure obedience, 
And dance the ladies to allegiance 64 . 
Oft his camp mufes he'll parade, 
At Bolton in the grand blockade, 
And well invoked with punch of arrack, 
Hold converfe fweet in tent or barrack, 
Infpired in more heroic fafhion, 
Both by his theme and fituation ; 
While farce and proclamation grand, 
Rife fair beneath his plaftic hand 65 . 
For genius fwells more ftrong and clear 
When clofe confin'd, like bottled beer : 
So Prior's wit gain'd greater pow'r, 
By infpiration of the tow'r 63 ; 



And 



fourth.] The Vision. 135 

xA.nd Raleigh fall in prifon hurl'd 
Wrote all the hift'ry of the world 67 : 
So Wilkes grew, while in goal he lay, 
More patriotic ev'ry day, 
But found his zeal, when not confin'd, 
Soon link below the freezing point, 
And public Ipirit once fo fair, 
Evaporate in open air 6S . 
But thou, great favorite of Venus, 
By no fuch luck fhalt cramp thy genius ; 
Thy friendly liars till wars lhall ceafe, 
Shall ward th' illfortune of releafe, 
And hold thee faft in bonds not feeble, 
In good condition Hill to fcribble. 
Such merit fate lhall Ihield from firing, 
Bomb, carcafe, langridge and cold iron, 
Nor trulls thy doubly laurell'd head, 
To rude affaults of flying lead. 
Hence in this Saratogue retreat, 
For pure good fortune thou'lt be beat ; 
Nor taken oft, releas'd or refcued, 

Pafs for fmall change, like limple Prefcott 69 ; 

But 



136 M'Fingal: [canto 

But captured there, as fates befall, 
Shalt fland thy hand for't, once for all. 
Then raife thy daring thoughts fublime, 
And dip thy conq'ring pen in rhyme, 
And changing war for puns and jokes, 
Write new Blockades and Maids of Oaks." "° 

This faid, he turn'd, and faw the tale, 
Had dyed my trembling cheeks with pale ; 
Then pitying in a milder vein 
Purfued the vifionary drain. 

" Too much perhaps hath pain'd your views 
Of vicVries gain'd by rebel crews ; 
Now fee the deeds not fmall or fcanty, 
Of Britifh Valor and Humanity ; 
And learn from this aufpicious fight, 
How England's fons and friends can fight ; 
In what dread fcenes their courage grows, 
And how they conquer all their foes." 

I look'd and faw in wintry fkies 

Our fpacious prison-walls arife, 

Where 



fourth.] The Vision. 137 

Where Britons all their captives taming, 

Plied them with fcourging, cold and famine ; 

Reduced to life's concluding ftages, 

By noxious food and plagues contagious. 

Aloft the mighty Loring flood, 

And thrived, like Vampyre, on their blood, 

And counting all his gains arifing, 

Dealt daily rations out of poifon. 

Amid the dead that croud the fcene, 

The moving fkeletons were feen ". 

At hand our troops in vaunting drains, 

Infulted all their wants and pains, 

And turn'd on all the dying tribe, 

The bitter taunt and fcornful gibe : 

And Britifh officers of might, 

Triumphant at the joyful fight, 

O'er foes difarm'd with courage daring, 

Exhaufred all their tropes of fwearing. 

Around all itain'd with rebel blood, 

Like Milton's lazar houfe it Hood 72 , 

Where grim Defpair attended nurfe, 

And Death was Gov'rnor of the houfe. 

Amaz'd 



138 M'Fingal: [canto 

Amaz'd I cried, ft Is this the way, 

That Britifh Valour wins the day ? " 

More had I faid, in flrains unwelcome, 

Till interrupted thus by Malcolm : 

" Blame not, quoth he, but learn the reafon 

Of this new mode of conq'ring treafon. 

'Tis but a wife, politic plan, 

To root out all the rebel-clan ; 

(For furely treafon ne'er can thrive, 

Where not a foul is left alive :) 

A fcheme, all other chiefs to furpafs, 

And to do th' effectual work to purpofe. 

For war itfelf is nothing further, 

But th' art and myflery of murther 7- ', 

And who moll methods has efTay'd, 

Is the bell Gen'ral of the trade, 

And flands Death's Plenipotentiary, 

To conquer, poifon, flarve and bury. 

This Howe well knew, and thus began, 

(Defpifing Carlton's coaxing plan, 

Who kept his pris'ners well and merry, 

And dealt them food like Commiffary, 

And 



FOURTH.] T H E V I S I O N . I 39 

And by paroles and ranfoms vain, 
Difmifs'd them all to fight again :) 74 
Whence his firfl captives with great fpirit, 
He tied up for his troops to fire at 75 , 
And hoped they'd learn on foes thus taken, 
To aim at rebels without making. 
Then wife in ftratagem he plann'd 
The fure deftruction of the land, 
Turn'd famine, ficknefs and defpair, 
To ufeful enginry of war, 
Inftead of cannon, mufket, mortar, 
Ufed peftilence and death and torture, 
Sent forth the fmall pox and the greater 76 , 
To thin the land of ev'ry traitor, 
And order'd out with like endeavour, 
Detachments of the prifon-fever 77 ; 
Spread defolation o'er their head, 
And plagues in Providence's Head, 
Perform'd with equal fkill and beauty, 
Th' avenging angel's tour of duty, 
Brought all the elements to join, 
And flars t' affift the great defign, 

As 



140 



M ' F I N G A l : [canto 



As once in league with Kifhon's brook, 
Famed IfraePs foes they fought and took 78 . 
Then proud to raife a glorious name, 
And em'lous of his country's fame, 
He bade thefe prison-walls arifc, 
Like temple tow'ring to the fkies, 
Where Britifh Clemency renown'd, 
Might fix her feat on facred ground ; 
(That Virtue, as each herald faith, 
Of whole blood kin to Punic Faith) 79 
Where all her Godlike pow'rs unveiling, 
She finds a grateful fhrine to dwell in. 
Then at this altar for her honor, 
Chofe this Highprieft to wait upon her, 
Who with juft rites, in antient guifes, 
Prefents thefe human facrifices ; 
Great Loring, famed above laymen, 
A proper Prieft for Lybian Ammon, 
Who, while Howe's gift his brows adorns, 
Had match'd that deity in horns 50 . 
Here ev'ry day her vot'ries tell 
She more devours than th' idol Bel 81 ; 



And 



fourth.] The Vision. 141 

And thirfts more rav'noufly for gore, 

Than any worfhipp'd Pow'r before. 

That antient Heathen Godhead, Moloch, 

Oft ftay'd his ftomach with a bullock, 

Or if his morning rage you'd check firft, 

One child fufficed him for a breakfaft S2 ; 

But Britifh Clemency with zeal 

Devours her hundreds at a meal, 

Right well by Nat'ralifts defined, 

A Being of carniv'rous kind. 

So erft Gargantua pleas'd his palate, 

And eat his pilgrims up for fallad 83 . 

Not bleft with maw lefs ceremonious, 

The wide-mouth'd whale that fwallow'd Jonas 84 ; 

Like earthquake gapes, to death devote, 

That open fepulchre, her throat ; 

The grave, or barren womb you'd flu£F, 

And fooner bring to cry, enough ; 

Or fatten up to fair condition, 

The leanflefh'd kine of Pharaoh's virion 85 . 

Behold her temple where it (lands 
Erect by famed Britannic hands ; 

Tis 



1 4 Z M'Fingal: [canto 

'Tis the blackhole of Indian ftru&ure, 
New-built with Englifh architecture, 
On plan, 'tis faid, contrived and wrote, 
By Clive, before he cut his throat 86 ; 
Who ere he took himfelf in hand, 
Was her Highprieft in Nabob-land &T : 
And when with conq'ring glory crown'd, 
He'd well enflav'd the nation round, 
With pitying heart the gen'rous chief, 
(Since flav'ry's worfe than lofs of life) 
Bade defolation circle far, 
And famine end the work of war ; 
Thus loofed their chains and for their merits, 
Difmifs'd them free to worlds of fpirits : 
Whence they with gratitude and praife, 
Return'd to attend his latter days, 
And hov'ring round his reftlefs bed, 
Spread nightly vifions o'er his head sS . 

" Now turn, he cried, to nobler fights, 

And mark the prowefs of our lights : 

Behold like whelps of Britifh Lyon, 

The warriors, Clinton, Vaughan and Tryon 89 , 

March 



fourth.] The Vision. 143 

March forth with patriotic joy, 

To ravifh, plunder, burn, deftroy. 

Great Gen'rals foremoft in the nation, 

The journeymen of Defolation ! 

Like Samfon's foxes each affails, 

Let loofe with firebrands in their tails, 

And fpreads destruction more forlorn, 

Than they did in Philiftine corn 90 . 

And fee in flames their triumphs rife, 

Illuming all the nether fkies, 

And ftreaming, like a new Aurora, 

The weilern hemifphere with glory ! 

What towns in afhes laid confefs 

Thefe heroes' prowefs and fuccefs ! 

What blacken'd walls, or burning fane, 

For trophies fpread the ruin'd plain ! 

What females caught in evil hour, 

By force fubmit to Britifh power, 

Or plunder'd Negroes in difafter 

Confefs king George their lord and mafter ! 

What crimfon corfes ftrew their way 

Till fmoaking carnage dims the day ! 



Al 



ong 



H4 



M ' F I N G A l : [canto 



Along the fhore for fure reduction 

They wield their befom of deftruttion. 

Great Homer likens, in his Ilias, 

To dogftar bright the fierce Achilles ; 

But ne'er beheld in red proceffion, 

Three dogftars rife in conftellation ; 

Or faw in glooms of ev'ning mifty, 

Such figns of fiery triplicity, 

Which far beyond the comet's tail, 

Portend deftruclion where they fail 91 . 

Oh had Great-Britain's godlike fhore, 

Produced but ten fuch heroes more, 

They'd fpared the pains and held the ftation, 

Of this world's final conflagration, 

Which when its time comes, at a Hand, 

Would find its work all done t' its hand ! 

Yet tho' gay hopes our eyes may blefs ; 
Indignant fate forbids fuccefs ; 
Like morning dreams our conqueft flies, 
Difperf'd before the dawn arife." 



Here 



fourth.] The Vision. 145 

Here Malcolm paus'd ; when pond'ring long, 
Grief thus gave utterance to my tongue. 
" Where fhrink in fear our friends difmay'd, 
And all the Tories' promis'd aid, 
Can none amid thefe fierce alarms, 
Affift the pow'r of royal arms ? " 
" In vain, he cried, our king depends, 
On promis'd aid of Tory-friends 92 . 
When our own efforts want fuccefs, 
Friends ever fail as fears increafe* 
As leaves in blooming verdure wove, 
In warmth of fummer cloath the grove, 
But when autumnal frofts arife, 
Leave bare their trunks to wintry fkies ; 
So while your pow'r can aid their ends, 
You ne'er can need ten thoufand friends, 
But once in want by foes difmay'd, 
May advertife them ftol'n or ftray'd. 
Thus ere Great-Britain's flrength grew flack, 
She gain'd that aid, fhe did not lack, 
But now in dread, imploring pity, 



All hear unmov'd her dol'rous ditty ; 



Allegiance 



1 46 M'Fingal: [canto 

Allegiance wand'ring turns aftray, 
And Faith grows dim for lack of pay 
In vain me tries by new inventions, 
Fear, falfhood, flatt'ry, threats and penfions, 
Or fends Commifs'ners with credentials 
Of promifes and penitentials 93 . 
As for his fare o'er Styx of old, 
The Trojan ftole the bough of gold, 
And leaft grim Cerberus mould make head, 
Stuff'd both his fobs with gingerbread 94 ; 
Behold at Britain's utmoft fhifts, 
Comes Johnftone loaded with like gifts, 
To venture thro' the Whiggifh tribe, 
To cuddle, wheedle, coax and bribe 95 , 
Enter their lands and on his journey, 
PoiTeffion take, as King's Attorney, 
Buy all the vaflals to protect him, 
And bribe the tenants not t' eject him ; 
And call to aid his defp'rate mifTion, 
His petticoated politician, 
While Venus join'd t' amft the farce, 
Strolls forth EmbafTadrefs for Mars 96 . 

In 



fourth.] The Vision. 147 

In vain he ftrives, for while he lingers, 
Thefe maftiffs bite his ofFring fingers ; 
Nor buys for George and realms infernal, 
One fpaniel, but the mongrel Arnold 97 . 

" 'Twere vain to paint in viiion'd fhow, 
The mighty nothings done by Howe ; 
What towns he takes in mortal fray, 
As flations, whence to run away ; 
What conquefts gain'd in battles warm, 
To us no aid, to them no harm ; 
For flill the event alike is fatal, 
What'er fuccefs attend the battle, 
If he gain viclory, or lofe it, 
Who ne'er had fkill enough to ufe it 98 ; 
And better 'twere at their expence, 
T' have drubb'd him into common fenfe, 
And wak'd by ballings on his rear, 
Th' activity, tho' but of fear. 
By flow advance his arms prevail, 
Like emblematic march of fnail ; 
That be Millennium nigh or far, 
'Twould long before him end the war. 

From 



1 48 M c F i n g a l : [can 

From York to Philadelphia!! ground, 
He fweeps the mighty flourifh round, 
Wheel'd circ'lar by excentric ftars, 
Like racing boys at prifon-bars, 
Who take the adverfe crew in whole, 
By running round the opp'fite goal ; 
Works wide the traverfe of his courfe, 
Like fhip in ftorms' oppofing force, 
Like millhorfe circling in his race, 
Advances not a fingle pace, 
And leaves no trophies of reduction, 
Save that of cankerworms, deftruction. 
Thus having long both countries curft, 
He quits them, as he found them firft, 
Steers home difgraced, of little worth, 
To join Burgoyne and rail at North ". 

Now raife thine eyes, and view with pleafure, 
The triumphs of his famed fucceflbr." 100 
[ look'd, and now by magic lore, 
Faint rofe to view the Jerfey more ; 
But dimly feen, in glooms array'd, 
For Night had pour'd her fable made, 



CTO 



And 



fourth.] The Vision. 149 

And ev'ry ftar, with glimm'rings pale, 
Was muffled deep in ev'ning veil : 
Scarce vifible in dufky night, 
Advancing redcoats rofe to fight ; 
The lengthenM train in gleaming rows 
Stole filent from their flumb'ring foes, 
Slow moved the baggage and the train, 
Like fnail crept noifelefs o'er the plain ; 
No trembling foldier dared to fpeak, 
And not a wheel prefum'd to creak 10! . 
My looks my new furprize confefs'd 
Till by great Malcolm thus addrefs'd : " 
" Spend not thy wits in vain refearches ; 
'Tis one of Clinton's moonlight marches. 
From Philadelphia now retreating, 
To fave his anxious troops a beating, 
With hafty ftride he flies in vain, 
His rear attack'd on Monmouth plain : 
With various chance the mortal fray 
Is lengthen'd to the clofe of day, 
When his tired bands o'ermatch'd in fight, 
Are refcued by defcending night 102 ; 

He 



150 M' Fin gal: [canto 

He forms his camp with vain parade, 

Till ev'ning fpreads the world with made, 

Then dill, like fome endanger'd fpark, 

Steals off on tiptoe in the dark ; 

Yet writes his king in boafling tone, 

How grand he march'd by light of moon 103 . 

I fee him ; but thou canft not ; proud 

He leads in front the trembling croud, 

And wifely knows, if danger's near, 

'Twill fall the heaviefl on his rear 104 . 

Go on, great Gen'ral, nor regard 

The feoffs of ev'ry fcribling Bard, 

Who ling how Gods that fatal night 

Aided by miracles your flight, 

As once they ufed, in Homer's day, 

To help weak heroes run away ; 

Tell how the hours at awful trial, 

Went back, as erfl on Ahaz' dial, 

While Britifh Jofhua ftay'd the moon, 

On Monmouth plains for Ajalon : 

Heed not their fneers and gibes fo arch, 

Became fhe fet before your march 105 . 

A fmall 



fourth.] The Vision. 151 

A fmall miftake, your meaning right, 
You take her influence for her light ; 
Her influence, which mall be your guide, 
And o'er your Gen'rallhip prefide. 
Hence (till fhall teem your empty fkull, 
With vicYries when the moon's at full, 
Which by tranfition yet more ftrange, 
Wane to defeats before the change ; 
Hence all your movements, all your notions 
Shall fleer by like excentric motions, 
Eclips'd in many a fatal crifis, 
And dimm'd when Wafhington arifes. 
And fee how Fate, herfelf turn'd traitor, 
Inverts the antient courfe of nature, 
And changes manners, tempers, climes, 
To fuit the genius of the times. 
See Bourbon forms his gen'rous plan, 
Firfl: guardian of the rights of man, 
And prompt in firm alliance joins, 
To aid the Rebels proud defigns 10fi . 
Behold from realms of eaftern day, 
His fails innum'rous fhape their way. 

In 



152 M'Fingal: [canto 

In warlike line the billows fweep, 

And roll the thunders of the deep 10T . 

See low in equinoctial fkies, 

The Weftern Iflands fall their prize 108 , 

See Britifh flags o'ermatch'd in might, 

Put all their faith in inftant flight, 

Or broken fquadrons from th' affray, 

Drag flow their wounded hulks away. 

Behold his chiefs in daring fetts, 

D'Eftaings 109 , De GrafTes 110 and Fayettes m , 

Spread thro' our camps their dread alarms, 

And fwell the fears of rebel-arms. 

Yet ere our empire fink in night, 

One gleam of hope fhall ftrike the light ; 

As lamps that fail of oil and fire, 

Collect one glimmering to expire. 

And lo where fouthern fhores extend, 

Behold our union'd holts defcend, 

Where Charleftown views with varying beams, 

Her turrets gild th' encircling ftreams. 

There by fuperior might compell'd, 

Behold their gallant Lincoln yield, 

Nor 



fourth. 1 The Vision. 153 

Nor aught the wreaths avail him now, 

Pluck'd from Burgoyne's imperious brow 112 . 

See furious from the vanquifh'd ftrand, 

Cornwallis leads his mighty band I 

The fouthern realms and Georgian more 

Submit and own the vi&or's pow'r, 

Lo, funk before his wafting way, 

The Carolinas fall his prey 113 ! 

In vain embattled hofts of foes 

Eflay in warring ftrife t' oppofe. 

See fhrinking from his conq'ring eye, 

The rebel legions fall or fly m ; 

And with'ring in thefe torrid fkies, 

The northern laurel fades and dies 11S . 

With rapid force he leads his band 

To fair Virginia's fated ftrand, 

Triumphant eyes the travell'd zone, 

And boafts the fouthern realms his own m , 

Nor yet this hero's glories bright 

Blaze only in the fields of fight ; 

Not Howe's humanity more deferving, 

In gifts of hanging and of ftarving ; 

Not 



154 M 'Fin gal : [canto 

Not Arnold plunders more tobacco, 

Or fleals more Negroes for Jamaica m ; 

Scarce Rodney's felf among th' Euftatians, 

Infults fo well the laws of nations lls ; 

Ev'n Tryon's fame grows dim, and mourning, 

He yields the laurel crown of burning 119 . 

I fee with rapture and furprize, 

New triumphs fparkling in thine eyes. 

But view where now renew'd in might, 

Again the rebels dare the fight." 

I look'd and far in fouthern fkies, 

Saw Greene, their fecond hope, arife, 

And with his fmall but gallant band, 

Invade the Carolinian land m . 

As winds in ftormy circles whirl'd 

Rufh billowing o'er the darken'd world, 

And where their wafting fury roves, 

SuccefTive fvveep th' aftonifh'd groves ; 

Thus where he pours the rapid fight, 

Our boafted conquefts link in night, 

And wide o'er all th' extended field, 

Our forts refign, our armies yield, 

Till 



fourth.] The Vision. 155 

Till now regain'd the vanquifh'd land, 
He lifts his ftandard on the flrand m . 

Again to fair Virginia's coaft, 

I turn'd and view'd the Britifh hoft. 

Where Chefapeak's wide waters lave 

Her fhores and join th' Atlantic wave, 

There fam'd Cornwallis tow'ring rofe, 

And fcorn'd fecure his diftant foes ; 

His bands the haughty rampart raife, 

And bid th' imperial ftandard blaze m . 

When lo, where ocean's bounds extend, 

I faw the Gallic fails afcend, 

With fav'ring breezes ftem their way, 

And croud with mips the fpacious bay 123 . 

Lo Wafhington from northern fhores, 

O'er many a region, wheels his force, 

And Rochambeau with legions bright, 

Defcends in terrors* to the fight m . 

Not fwifter cleaves his rapid way, 

The eagle cow'ring o'er his prey, 

Or knights in fam'd romance that fly 

On fairy pinions thro' the fky. 

Amaz'd 



156 M'Fingal: [canto 

Amaz'd the Briton's ftartled pride, 
Sees ruin wake on ev'ry fide ; 
And all his troops to fate confign'd, 
By inftantaneous ftroke Burgoyn'd 12B . 
Not Cadmus view'd with more furprize, 
From earth embattled armies rife, 
When by fuperior pow'r impell'd, 
He fow'd with dragon's teeth the field m . 
Here Gallic troops in terror ftand, 
There rum in arms the Rebel band ; 
Nor hope remains from mortal fight, 
Or that laft Britifh refuge, flight m . 
I faw with looks downcaft and grave, 
The Chief emerging from his cave m , 
(Where chaced like hare in mighty round, 
His hunters earth'd him firft in ground) 
And doom'd by fate to rebel fway, 
Yield all his captur'd hofts a prey 129 . 

There while I view'd the vanquifh'd town, 

Thus with a figh my friend went on : 

" Beholdft thou not that band forlorn, 

Like flaves in Roman triumphs borne 130 ; 

Their 



fourth.] The Vision. 157 

Their faces length'ning with their fears, 

And cheeks diftain'd with ftreams of tears, 

Like dramatis perforin fage, 

Equipt to acl on Tyburn's flage. 

Lo thefe are they, who lur'd by follies, 

Left all and folio w'd great Cornwallis ; 

True to their King, with firm devotion, 

For confcience fake and hop'd promotion, 

Expe£tant of the promis'd glories, 

And new Millennial Hate of Tories. 

Alas, in vain, all doubts forgetting, 

They tried th' omnipotence of Britain ; 

But found her arm, once ftrong and brave, 

So fhorten'd now fhe cannot fave. 

Not more agnail departed fouls, 

Who rifk'd their fate on Popiih bulls 131 , 

And find St. Peter at the wicket 

Refufe to counteriign their ticket, 

When driv'n to purgatory back, 

With all their pardons in their pack : 

Than Tories muft'ring at their flations 

On faith of royal proclamations 132 . 

As 



158 M ' F I N G A l : [canto 

As Pagan Chiefs at ev'ry crilis, 
Confirm'd their leagues by facrifices, 
And herds of beafts to all their deities, 
Oblations fell at clofe of treaties : 
Cornwallis thus in antient fafhion, 
Concludes his league of cap'tulation, 
And victims due to Rebel-glories, 
Gives this an ofF'ring up of Tories. 
See where reliev'd from fad embargo, 
Steer off confign'd a recreant cargo, 
Like old fcapegoats to roam in pain, 
Mark'd like their great forerunner, Cain 133 . 
The reft, now doom'd by Britifh leagues, 
To juftice of refentful Whigs, 
Hold worthlefs lives on tenure ill, 
Of tenancy at Rebel-will, 
While hov'ring o'er their forfeit perfons, 
The gallows waits his fure reverfions. 

Thou too, M'Fingal, ere that day, 

Shalt tafte the terrors of th' affray. 

See o'er thee hangs in angry Ikies, 

Where Whiggifh conftellations rife, 

And 



fourth.] The Vision. 159 

And while plebeian figns afcend, 
Their mob-infpiring afpects bend ; 
That baleful Star, whofe horrid hair 1:il 
Shakes forth the plagues of down and tar ! 
I fee the pole, that rears on high 
Its flag terrific thro' the fky ; 
The Mob beneath prepar'd t' attack, 
And tar predeftin'd for thy back ! 
Ah quit, my friend, this dang'rous home, 
Nor wait the darker fcenes to come ; 
For know that Fate's aufpicious door, 
Once fhut to flight is oped no more, 
Nor wears its hinge by various ftations, 
Like Mercy's door in proclamations 135 . 

But left thou paufe, or doubt to fly, 
To ftranger vifions turn thine eye : 
Each cloud that dimm'd thy mental ray, 
And all the mortal mills decay ; 
See more than human Pow'rs befriend, 
And lo their hoftile forms afcend ! 
See tow'ring o'er th' extended ftrand, 
The Genius of the weftern land, 

In 



1 60 M'Fingal : [canto 

In vengeance arm'd, his fword affumes, 

And Hands, like Tories, dreft in plumes 136 . 

See o'er yon Council feat with pride, 

How Freedom fpreads her banners wide 137 ! 

There Patriotifm with torch addrefs'd, 

To fire with zeal each daring breaft ! 

While all the Virtues in their band, 

Efcape from yon unfriendly land, 

Defert their antient Britifh flation, 

PofTeft. with rage of emigration. 

Honor, his bufinefs at a Hand, 

For fear of ftarving quits their land ; 

And Juftice, long difgraced at Court, had 

By Mansfield's fentence been tranfported 138 . 

VicVry and Fame attend their way, 

Tho' Britain wifh their longer flay, 

Care not what George or North 139 would be at, 

Nor heed their writs of ne exeat 140 ; 

But fired with love of colonizing, 

Quit the fall'n empire for the rifing." 

I look'd and faw with horror fmitten, 

Thefe hoftile pow'rs averfe to Britain. 

When 



fourth.] The Vision. 161 

When lo, an awful fpectre rofe 141 , 

With languid palenefs on his brows ; 

Wan dropfies fwcll'd his form beneath, 

And iced his bloated cheeks with death ; 

His tatter'd robes expofed him bare, 

To ev'ry blafl of ruder air ; 

On two weak crutches propt he Hood, 

That bent at ev'ry Hep he trod, 

Gilt titles graced their fides fo flender, 

One, "Regulation," t'other, "Tender 142 ;" 

His breaftplate grav'd with various dates, 

" The faith of all th' United States 143 : " 

Before him went his fun'ral pall, 

His grave flood dug to wait his fall. 

I ftarted, and aghafl I cried, 

" What means this fpettre at their fide ? 

What danger from a Pow'r fo vain, 

And why he joins that fplendid train ? " 

" Alas, great Malcolm cried, experience 

Might teach you not to truft appearance. 

Here (lands, as drefl by fierce Bellona 144 , 

The ghoft of Continental Money 145 , 

Of 



i6z 



M'FlNGAL 



[canto 



Of dame NeceiTity defcended, 
With whom Credulity engendered. 
Tho' born with conftitution frail, 
And feeble ftrength that foon muft fail ; 
Yet ftrangely vers'd in magic lore, 
And gifted with transforming pow'r. 
His fkill the wealth Peruvian joins 
With diamonds of Brazilian mines 146 . 
As erft Jove fell by fubtle wiles 
On Danae's apron thro' the tiles, 
In fhow'rs of gold ; 14T his potent hand 
Shall flied like fhow'rs thro' all the land. 
Lefs great the magic art was reckon'd, 
Of tallies caft by Charles the fecond, 
Or Law's famed MiiTiffipi fchemes 148 , 
Or all the wealth of Southfea dreams 149 . 
For he of all the world alone 
Owns the longfought Philof'pher's ftone l5 \ 
Reftores the fab'lous times to view, 
And proves the tale of Midas true m . 
O'er heaps of rags, he waves his wand, 
All turn to gold at his command, 



Provide 



fourth.] The Vision. 163 

Provide for prefent wants and future, 

Raife armies, victual, clothe, accoutre, 

Adjourn our conquefb by eflbign, 

Check Howe's advance and take Burgoyne, 

Then makes all days of payment vain, 

And turns all back to rags again 15i . 

In vain great Howe mall play his part, 

To ape and counterfeit his art : 

In vain fhall Clinton, more belated, 

A conj'rer turn to imitate it lo3 ; 

With like ill luck and pow'r as narrow, 

They'll fare, like for'cers of old Pharaoh, 

Who tho' the art they underftood 

Of turning rivers into blood, 

And caus'd their frogs and fnakes t' exift, 

That with fome merit croak'd and hifs'd, 

Yet ne'er by ev'ry quaint device, 

Could frame the true Mofaic lice 15 \ 

He for the Whigs his arts fhall try, 

Their firft, and long their fole ally ; 

A patriot firm, while breath he draws, 

He'll perifh in his country's caufe ; 

And 



1 64 M 'Fikgal : [canto 

And when his magic labours ccafe, 
Lie buried in eternal peace. 

Now view the fcenes in future hours, 
That wait the famed European Pow'rs. 
See where yon chalky cliffs arife, 
The hills of Britain ftrike your eyes loj : 
Its fmall extenfion long fupplied, 
By vaft immenfity of pride ; 
So small that had it found a ftation 
In this new world at firft creation, 
Or were by Juilice doom'd to fufFer, 
And for its crimes tranfported over 106 
We'd find fall room for't in lake Eri, or 
That larger waterpond, Superior, 
Where North on margin taking {land, 
Would not be able to fpy land !5T . 
No more, elate with pow'r, at eafe 
She deals her infill ts round the leas ; 
See dwindling from her height amain, 
What piles of ruin fpread the plain ; 
With mould'ring hulks her ports are fill'd, 
And brambles clothe the cultur'd field ! 

See 



fourth.] The Vision. 165 

See on her cliffs her Genius lies, 

His handkerchief at both his eyes, 

With many a deepdrawn figh and groan, 

To mourn her ruin and his own ! 

While joyous Holland, France and Spain, 

With conq'ring navies rule the main, 

And Ruffian banners wide unfurl'd, 

Spread commerce round the eaftern world 158 . 

And fee (light hateful and tormenting) 

Th' Amer'can empire proud and vaunting, 

From anarchy fhall change her craiis, 

And fix her pow'r on firmer balls ; 

To glory, wealth and fame afcend, 

Her commerce rife, her realms extend ; 

Where now the panther guards his den, 

Her defart forefts fwarm with men, 

Her cities, tow'rs and columns rife, 

And dazzling temples meet the fkies ; 

Her pines defcending to the main, 

In triumph fpread the watry plain, 

Ride inland lakes with fav'ring gales, 

And croud her ports with whit'ning fails ; 

Till 



1 66 M'Fingal: [canto 

Till to the fkirts of weftern day, 

The peopled regions own her fway lo9 ." 

Thus far M'Fingal told his tale, 
When thundring ftiouts his ears affail, 
And ftrait a Tory that flood centry, 
Aghaft rufh'd headlong down the entry, 
And with wild outcry, like magician, 
Difpers'd the refidue of vifion 1G0 : 
For now the Whigs intell'gence found 
Of Tories muftring under ground, 
And with rude bangs and loud uproar, 
'Gan thunder furious at the door 161 . 
The lights put out, each Tory calls 

To cover him, on cellar walls, 

Creeps in each box, or bin, or tub, 

To hide his head from wrath of mobj 

Or lurks, where cabbages in row 

Adorn'd the fide with verdant mow. 

M'Fingal deem'd it vain to ftay, 

And rifk his bones in fecond fray ; 

But chofe a grand retreat from foes, 

In lit'ral fenfe, beneath their nofe 16 ' 2 . 



The 



fourth.] The Vision'. 167 

The window then, which none elfe knew, 

He foftly open'd and crept thro' 

And crawling flow in deadly fear, 

By movements wife made good his rear. 

Then fcorning all the fame of martyr, 

For Bofton took his fwift departure m ; 

Nor dar'd look back on fatal fpot, 

More than the family of Lot 164 . 

Not North in more diftrefs'd condition, 

Outvoted firft by oppofition : 

Nor good king George when that dire phantom 

Of Independence comes to haunt him, 

Which hov'ring round by night and day, 

Not all his conj'rers yet can lay ,6 \ 

His friends, aflembled for his fake, 

He wifely left in pawn at Hake, 

To tarring, feath'ring, kicks and drubs 

Of furious, difappointed mobs, 

And with their forfeit hides to pay 

For him, their leader, crept away 166 . 

So when wife Noah fummon'd greeting 

All animals to gen'ral meeting ; 

From 



168 M'Fingal: [canto 

From ev'ry fide the members Tent 

All kinds of beafls to reprefent ; 

Each from the flood took care t' embark, 

And fave his carcafe in the ark ; 

But as it fares in Mate and church, 

Left his conltituents in the lurch. 



FINIS. 



NOTES. 



CANTO I. 

1 The origin of the word Yankey (now spelled 
Yankee) is involved in obscurity. Some suppose 
it to be derived from an appellation in use in Eu- 
rope, long before the settlement of the English 
colonies in America. Others, with more plausi- 
bility, say that it was coined from the guttural 
sound of the New England Indians in their at- 
tempt to pronounce the word English. The sound 
would be nearly represented thus — Yaunghees, the 
g being pronounced hard, and approaching to the 
sound of Jc, joined with a strong aspirate. The 
Dutch settlers on the Hudson adopted it as an 
epithet of derision, and applied it to all the in- 
habitants of New England. Dr. Thacher says that 
a farmer of Cambridge, Massachusetts, named 
Jonathan Hastings, who lived at about the year 
1713, used it as a favorite cant word to express 
excellence, as a yankee good house, or yanlcee good 
cider. The students of Harvard on that account 



170 Notes. 

called him Yankee Jonathan. As he was a weak 
man, when the students wished to denote a person 
of that character, they would call him Yankee 
Jonathan. It is now often used in England as a 
general name for the people of the United States. 
Layard, in his narrative of his discoveries at Nin- 
eveh, says that some of the natives there uttered 
a sound very similar to that of Yankee, in giving 
a general name to the Americans. 

2 This is in allusion to the tumultuous flight of 
the British toward Boston, after the skirmishes at 
Lexington and Concord on the 19th of April, 
1775. It might also apply to many similar flights 
of the enemy during the war. This canto was 
published in the autumn of 1775, and the allusion 
was only to the events in the vicinity of Boston. 

3 When General Gage heard of the affair at 
Lexington, he sent out Lord Percy, a son of the 
Duke of Northumberland, with a reinforcement. 
Percy was a lineal descendant of the noted Earl 
Percy, who was slain in the battle of Chevy Chase, 
so celebrated in English song and stoiy. As he 
marched out through Roxbury, his band playing 
Yankee Doodle, in derision, (it being then used 
in the British army as a sort of Rogue's March, 
when drumming delinquents out of the camp.) he 
observed a boy performing many antics. Percy 
asked him why he was so merry. " To think," 
said the shrewd lad, " how you will dance by-and- 
by, to Chevy Chase." Percy was often influenced 



Notes. 171 

by presentiments, and the remark of the boy 
pressed heavily upon his spirits all the day. 

4 M 'Fingal is a representative of numerous 
magistrates at the commencement of the Revolu- 
tion, who, desirous of retaining their offices, 
were over-zealous for the Crown, and became ex- 
ceedingly obnoxious to the Whigs, as the Friends 
of Liberty were called. 

5 Fingal was the Warrior King of ancient Scot- 
land, celebrated for his martial deeds in the Poems 
of Ossian, a reputed Celtic Homer, who lived in the 
second or third century of the Christian Era 
These poems, professedly translated from the 
Gaelic, or Erse language, by James McPherson, a 
native of Inverness-shire, Scotland, were first pub- 
lished in 1762, under the title of Fingal ; An 
Ancient Epic Poem, in Six Books. Many believe 
this epic to have been the offspring of the brain of 
McPherson alone. The question of its antiquity 
is yet open. McPherson was in America in 1770, 
as Surveyor General, under Governor Johnstone, 
of Florida ; and it is asserted by McGregor, that 
he took his Gaelic manuscripts with him, and lost 
many of them there. 

6 The Gaelic Taischitaraugh, a well-known 
Highland superstition. The belief was prevalent 
that certain persons were endowed with powers of 
divination, and that they would sometimes not 
only foretell events, but by some mysterious 
method, unknown to themselves had actual 



172 Notes. 

visions of things distant, or in future. The belief 
was, according to Martin, universal in the Western 
Islands; and Dr. Johnson, in his narrative of his 
visit there, gives a graphic account of the su- 
perstition, and even defends it. Sir Walter Scott 
often used it with effect, in prose and verse. The 
character of M'Allister, in the Legend of Mon- 
trose, exhibits it ; and in his fioe ballad of Lord 
Roland, and in the Lady of the Lake, he has 
given glimpses of it. So has Campbell, in 
LochieVs Warning ; and Collins, in his ode on the 
Superstitions of the Highlands finely describes 
it. The belief has almost passed away, and 
now has existence only in tradition and poetry. 

7 The English people had a traditional hatred of 
the Stuarts, which, after the rebellion in favor of 
the young Pretender, Charles Edward, in 1745, 
was extended, in a great degree, to the whole 
Scotch people. On the accession of George the 
Third, the minds of the English people, and espe- 
cially of the ultra Protestants, were excited by 
unpleasant forebodings, because John, Earl of 
Bute, a needy Scotch adventurer, who had been 
the young King's tutor, was admitted to his 
counsels as Chief Minister, to the exclusion of the 
eminent William Pitt. He was a great favorite 
of the queen-dowager, and rumor spoke disparag- 
ingly of her virtue. These facts made the people 
fear the influence of the Jacobites, as the adhe- 
rents of the Stuarts were called, in the affairs of 



Notes. 173 

government ; and somebody bad tbe boldness, 
at the beginning of George's reign, to place a large 
placard on tbe Royal Exchange, with the words. 
" No Petticoat Government — No Scotch Minis- 
ter." The Scotch were noted for their loyalty, in 
this country, and were generally found among the 
Tories, especially in the Carolinas. This fact, 
and the odium that rested upon the Jacobites in 
the mother country, made the Americans, during 
the Revolution, look with suspicion upon all Scotch- 
men. Jefferson manifested this feeling, when he 
drew up the Declaration of Independence. In 
the original draft, he alluded to "Scotch and 
foreign mercenaries." This was omitted, on mo- 
tion of Dr. Witherspoon, who was a Scotchman 
by birth. In most minds, the word Jacobite was 
synonymous with Popery. Trumbull showed his 
dislike of the Scotch by his choice of a hero in 
this poem. Frenau, another eminent poet of the 
Revolution, also evinced the same hatred. In 
one of his poems, in which he gives Burgoyne 
many hard rubs, he consigns the Tories, with 
Burgoyne at their head, to an ice-bound, fog-cov- 
ered island, off the northern coast of Scotland, 
thus : 

" There, Loyals, there, with loyal hearts, retire, 
There pitch your tents, and kindle there your fire ; 
There desert Nature will her stings display, 
And fiercest hunger on your vitals prey ; 
And with yourselves, let John Burgoyne retire, 
To reign vour monarch, whom your hearts desire." 



1 74 Notes. 

* When bees are swarming, loud beating npon 
sonorous metal, such as tin pans, kettles, et cetera, 
causes them to alight, or "settle," when they are 
placed in a newly-prepared hive. 

9 Alluding to the influences of the established 
churches of England and Scotland, in favor of the 
crown. 

10 Bute is mentioned in a preceding note. Lord 
Mansfield, here alluded to, was a powerful sup- 
porter of the Ministry, and was employed to draw 
up many of the bills introduced after the passage 
of the famous stamp act, in 1765, for enslaving 
the colonies. On that account, and because of his 
Popish tendencies, he was hated by the Americans. 
He was one of the most able of the Chief Justices of 
England, and was raised to the peerage in 1776. 
Because he seemed to favor the Boman Catho- 
lics, his mansion was burned during the anti-Cath- 
olic riots in London in 1780, and with it his 
valuable collection of books and rare manuscripts. 

11 Soon after the accession of George the Third, 
Bute sent secret agents to America, to spy out the 
condition of the colonists. The Grermans, who were 
then rapidly settling large districts in Pennsyl- 
vania, as well as in the Carolinas, were found to be 
a liberty-loving people, and generally inimical to 
royal prerogatives. The French lloman Catho- 
lics, then quite rapidly increasing in Maryland, 
and the French Protestants in South Carolina, 
were obnoxious to the same objections, and the 



Notes. 175 

King was advised to cast obstacles in the way of 
emigration to the English colonies in America. 
Restrictive measures were soon employed, and a 
scheme was proposed to " reform the American 
Charters." In this lay the egg of active tyranny. 
This measure is alluded to in one of the charges 
made against the King in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. 

12 Sybillae were prophetic women, ten in number, 
said to have lived in the early ages of Greece and 
Rome. The most noted of these was the Sybil 
of Cumse, celebrated by Virgil in the sixth book 
of his JEneid. She is said to have written her pro- 
phecies in books, in which she foretold the fate of 
the Roman Empire. This Sybil was consulted by 
iEneas, and, according to the poets, she accom- 
panied him to the lower world. She is probably 
the one who offered her books to Tarquin in his 
palace. She had nine volumes, which she offered 
to sell to Tarquin at a very high price. He 
refused. She disappeared, burned three of them, 
and then offered him the remaining six at the 
same price. He again refused, when she burned 
three more, and came on the same errand. The 
astonished Emperor bought the remaining three, 
and they were long preserved with the greatest 
care. The whole story is probably a poetic fable, 
covering some important fact in Roman history. 

13 Dodona was the most ancient oracle in Greece 
and is said to have been consulted by the Pelasgi. 



176 Notes. 

The responses of the oracle were delivered by a 
priestess, from the sacred oak or beach. There 
were two oracles of the same name, one at Epirus, 
and one in Thessaly. 

14 The tripod was an ancient three-legged stool, 
on which priests and priestesses sat when they 
uttered their oracles. 

15 In the autumn of 1775, the British govern- 
ment bargained with some of the petty German 
princes for about seventeen thousand troops, to 
assist in crushing the rebellion in America. As 
the larger portion of these troops were hired from 
the Prince of Hesse Cassel, they bore the general 
name of Hessians, and as such are known in the 
history of our War for Independence. They 
came in the summer and autumn of 1776. and 
were first let loose upon the patriots on Long- 
Island, and in lower Westchester County, New- 
York. They were generally ignorant, blood- 
thirsty and cruel, and were despised by the English 
soldiers. They were employed in the least hon- 
orable enterprises during the war, especially in 
forays upon hamlets, and the burning of towns. 
They cost the British government a million of 
dollars, and a vast amount of reputation among 
the nations. The scheme for their employment 
was distasteful even to the King, and it was de- 
nounced in Parliament, as " disgraceful to the 
British name." 

16 This prophecy was but half accomplished. 



Notes. 177 

The mercenaries did come over, but the hanging, 
and division of estates never occurred. 

17 A Grecian warrior and herald, in the army 
that besieged Troy. His voice, according to 
Homer, was louder than the combined voices of 
fifty men. 

18 In the wars between the ancient Greeks and 
Persians, and other eastern nations, elephants 
were employed. Sometimes they became fright- 
ened, turned and fled. In their flight they would 
trample upon those " they came to aid." 

19 Penelope, wife of Ulysses, monarch of Ithaca, 
who was remarkable for her fidelity to her hus- 
band. Ulysses was absent twenty years, after his 
departure for the siege of Troy. Many lovers 
sought the hand of Penelope, and her relatives 
urged her to abandon all thoughts of her husband's 
return. She finally agreed to make choice of one 
of the suitors as soon as she should complete a 
web she was then weaving, as a funeral ornament 
for the aged Laertes. Every night she would 
undo all that she had wrought in the day time, and 
thus she protracted her promise until the final 
return of her husband. 

20 The British Parliament, in its assertion of its 
power c< to bind the colonies in all cases whatso- 
ever," levied a small duty upon all tea imported 
into the colonies. The sum was small, but the 
principles involved were of vast importance. 
The colonists had already stoutly opposed govern- 



178 Notes. 

raent measures having a like tendency to tax the 
people without their, consent, and had boldly 
enunciated the grand postulate, that taxation 

WITHOUT REPRESENTATION, IS OPPRESSION. The 

even nominal duty on tea, levied without the con- 
sent of the colonists, was in violation of the free- 
dom negatively asserted in that postulate, and the 
people resolved not to submit to the tax. They 
held meetings, declared that tea should not be 
landed for sale on our shores, while the duty re- 
mained, warned consignees not to offend the popu- 
lar will, and appointed committees of vigilance 
and correspondence to see that that will had free 
exercise. Commotions ensued, cargoes of tea 
were destroyed, and the Revolutionary crisis was 
thus hastened. For ten long years, the people 
had remonstrated, petitioned, addressed the King, 
Parliament and people of Great Britain, but to no 
purpose, and so, despairing of redress, and deter- 
mined to be free, they raised the arm of resistance, 
and the war began. 

21 The terms Whig and Tory were adopted at 
an early period of the struggle. The appellation 
of Tory was first given to the wild Irish, outside 
of the English real jurisdiction in Ireland, who 
made predatory war against the British settle- 
ments in Dublin and vicinity. In the civil wars 
in the reign of Charles the First, these clans 
adhered to the royal party. The name was also 
applied to a volunteer troop of cavalry in Charles's 



Notes. 179 

army, composed of young noblemen, and the sons 
of gentlemen, who were famous for revelry, and 
the singing of songs, the chorus of which con- 
sisted in a roll of unmeaning words. They had a 
favorite ballad, suited to the times, the chorus of 
which was, 

" Sing tory, rory, rantum, sanctum, tory rory row.'* 

The origin of the word Whig is not so clear. 
Some say that it originally meant a sour kind of 
crab-apple, and that it was applied to the Puri- 
tans in the army of Cromwell, who clipped their 
hair short, scowled upon all pleasantries, &c. 
They were called "Whigs, prick-ears, and round- 
heads. Bishop Burnet gives a different account 
of its origin. The waggoners in the West of 
Scotland, when driving their horses, used the word 
ivhiggam, and the drivers were called ivhigga- 
mores, abbreviated to whiggs. On one occasion, 
about six thousand of these people marched 
to Edinburgh, headed by the Marquis of Argyle, 
to oppose the ministerial troops, and, after that, 
all who opposed the court, were called Whigs, in 
contempt. Ever since then, the court party in 
England have been called Tories, and their oppo- 
nents Whigs. These were significant terms for 
the Americans at the commencement of the revo- 
lutionary contest, and became common in 1774. 

22 Allusion is here probably made to a King of 
the Averni district, whom Caesar made a prisoner 
after his last battle with and final conquest of the 



1 8c Notes. 

Gauls, and carried in triumph to Rome. When he 
laid the royal ensigns and arms at the foot of Caesar, 
he exclaimed, " Receive them ; thou, 0, bravest of 
men, hast conquered a brave man." The Senate de- 
creed a triumph to Caesar, and the Gallic King and 
other notable prisoners were astonished and awed 
by the great display of wealth, and power, and 
pageantry, in the imperial city. 

23 Formerly town meetings were usually held in 
the churches or meeting-houses in the country 
towns of New England. 

24 Mercury was the messenger of the gods, and 
is represented with wings upon his cap and feet, 
and bearing a staff (caduceus) in his hand, about 
which serpents are entwined. Mercury was also 
considered the patron of eloquence, and of thieves, 
and other dishonest persons. 

25 In many parts of New England, the term 
Moderator is yet given to the chairman of the 
meeting, whether political or religious. In the 
present case, he is seated in one of those high, 
old-fashioned pulpits, which seemed to have been 
constructed chiefly for the purpose of concealing 
the person of the speaker. 

26 During the summer and autumn of 1774, the 
people of the colonies, especially those of New 
England, commenced arming themselves. They 
practised daily in military exercises ; the manufac- 
ture of gunpowder was encouraged ; and throughout 
Massachusetts in particular, the people were en- 



Notes. 181 

rolled as a militia force, in companies, prepared to 
take up arms, and rush to the field at a minute's 
warning. From this circumstance, they were 
called minute-men. Such were the men who 
opposed the British at Lexington and Concord, 
and annoyed them by a galling fire from behind 
hedges and stone walls, all the way of their re- 
treat to Boston. 

27 iEolus was the god or ruler of the winds ; and 
was represented as holding them in restraint, in a 
great cave, from which they issued at his bidding. 

2S Numbers, chapter xii. 

29 Honorius, as opposed to M'Fingal, is a repre- 
sentative of a stanch Whig patriot, and a bold 
leader of his class. 

30 British statesmen, opposed to the colonists, in 
their struggle for freedom, were fond of boasting 
of the liberality of Great Britain, toward her 
children in the New World. They were either 
ignorant of, or artfully concealed the fact, that 
England had been fully repaid for all her boasted 
aids, by services, the most arduous and important. 
All of the settlements, except Georgia, had been 
made on private account ; and all through the 
colonial period, the connection with Great Britain 
was a detriment to the colonies, rather than a 
benefit. For long and gloomy years, they had 
struggled up, from feebleness to strength, unaided 
and alone. They had built fortifications, raised 
armies, and fought battles, for England's glory 



182 Notes. 

and their own preservation, without England's 
aid, and often without her sympathy. In 1758, 
when the French and Indian War was progressing, 
public and private advances to carry on the war, 
made in Massachusetts alone, amounted to more 
than a million of dollars. The taxes on real 
estate, in order to raise money, were enormous ; 
in many instances, equal to two-thirds of the in- 
come of the tax-payers. Yet it was levied by 
their own representatives, and they did not com- 
plain. Lord Baltimore spent £200,000 sterling, 
in colonizing Maryland ; and William Penn became 
deeply involved in debt, in his efforts to settle and 
improve Pennsylvania. On one occasion, in 1765, 
Charles Townshend, in the House of Commons, 
spoke of the Americans as children planted by the 
care of Great Britain, nourished up by its indul- 
gence, and protected by its arms. Colonel Barre 
replied, " They planted by your care ! No, your 
oppressions planted them in America." * * * 
" They nourished up by your indulgence/ They 
grew by your neglect of them." ***** 
" They protected by your arms ! They have 
nobly taken up arms in your defence." And then 
he recounted the valorous deeds of the Americans, 
and warned the English legislature that " that 
same spirit of freedom which actuated the people 
at first," in fleeing from persecution, would " ac- 
company them still," and predicted that they 
would take up arms in defence of their liberties. 



Notes. 183 

31 Growth and decay seem to be the law of pro- 
gress in nations as well as individuals. This 
truth, all past history teaches us. States have 
their youth, maturity, and season of decrepitude 
before decay. 

3! This is to become a public charge. The 
national debt of England, at that time, was more 
than seven hundred and fifty millions of dollars. 
The debt was commenced by William the Third, 
and the English people were alarmed at its amount, 
in 1697, then only twenty-five millions of dollars. 
At the close of the war of the Revolution, in 
1783, it had swelled to about thirteen hundred 
millions. Now (1857) it is more than four thou- 
sand millions of dollars ! 

33 This alludes to the time of the elder Pitt's 
administration, when Canada was wrested from 
the French, and a vast empire in India lay pros- 
trate at the feet of Great Britain. Fifteen years 
had now elapsed, and the Gallic or French power 
had loomed up amazingly, and the traditionary 
feud between the two people, though quieted by 
treaties, was as fierce as ever. When our Revolu* 
tion broke out, the French perceived an opportu- 
nity to damage England, by helping her rebellious 
colonies. Early in the struggle, the Americans 
received material aid from France, and finally, in 
1778, formed a treaty of alliance with that nation. 
For three years, Gallic crows had been whetting 
" their beaks to pick her." 



184 Notes. 

34 An ancient " Hospital of St. Mary of Bethle 
hem," situated in London, and incorporated by 
Henry the Eighth, in 1546. The hospital build- 
ing in Moorfields, which was erected in 1675, was 
pulled down in 1814. The present buildings of 
the institution are in St. George's Fields. It has 
long been used as a hospital for lunatics, which 
explains the allusion in the poem. In later edi- 
tions of this poem, the word Bethlehem is changed 
to Bedlam. The latter is a corruption of the 
former. 

35 « "Who sees thee ? (and what is one ?) who shouldst 

be seen, 

A goddess among gods, adored and served, 

By angels numberless thy daily train." 

Satan to Eve. 
******* 

— "but henceforth my early care, 
Not without song, each morning and due praise, 
Shall tend thee, and the fertile burden ease 
Of thy full branches, offered free to all ; 
Till, dieted by thee, I grow mature 
In knowledge as the gods, who all things know." 
Eve to the Tree of L'fe, Milton 's Paradise Lost, Book IX. 

36 Special reference is here made to an act, 
passed by the British Parliament in 1766, known 
as the Declaratory Act, in which the omnipotence 
of the British Parliament was affirmed, and its 
" right " declared to bind the colonies in all 
cases whatsoever." This measure, strange as it 
may appear, was proposed by Pitt, who had 



Notes. 185 

labored zealously for the repeal of the odious 
stamp act. It was a necessary expedient, he 
thought, in order to insure that repeal, but it un- 
fortunately became the egg from which issued the 
most obnoxious measures. 

27 When, in 1534, Henry the Eighth of England 
quarrelled with the Pope, he cast off his allegiance 
to the Pontiff, and settled the supremacy over 
the Church and State, in his dominions, in the 
person of the Sovereign. The monarchs of 
England have ever since asserted and maintained 
that supremacy. 

33 It is asserted (and positively denied) that, in 
the ninth century, a female named Joan conceived 
a violent passion for a young monk named Felda, 
and in order to be admitted into his monastery, 
assumed the garb of a man. On the death of 
her lover, she entered upon the duties of Professor, 
and, being very learned, was elected Pope on the 
death of Adrian, in 872. This story has occa- 
sioned violent disputes among ecclesiastical his- 
torians. We have no record of any trial to prove 
her sex, as in the case of the Chevalier D'Eon, 
before Lord Mansfield. 

39 The English Parliament House is called St. 
Stephen's Chapel. A chapel so called in honor 
of Stephen, the proto -martyr, was erected by 
King Stephen, at about the year 1135. It was 
rebuilt in 1347 ; and about the year 1550, it was 
applied to the use of Parliament. 



1 86 Notes. 

40 Lord North, Earl of Guilford, became First 
Lord of the Treasury, or Prime Minister of 
England, in 1770, and continued in that important 
office until 1782. He was a well-meaning man, 
but lacked the better qualities of a great states- 
man ; and by his official blunders, obstinacy, and 
unwise measures, he was chiefly instrumental in 
alienating the loj'alty of the American people, 
and in causing and protracting their armed strug- 
gle for independence. He was blind for some 
years before his death, which occurred in July, 
1792, when he was sixty years of age. See note 
157, Canto IV. 

41 This is in allusion to the measure known as 
the Quebec Act, in the spring of 1774, which 
established the Roman Catholic religion in Canada. 
When the British ministry perceived the general 
disaffection in the American colonies, and the 
probability that the important province of Canada 
would join in the revolt, this conciliatory measure 
toward the Roman Catholic population there, was 
intended to prevent such a result. The cry of 
" No Popery " was then very popular in England, 
and the Quebec Act deeply offended public senti- 
ment there, and in America. The title here 
given to the central Papal authority is derived 
from the 17th chapter of Bevelations. 

42 At the commencement of hostilities, British 
ships and armies were employed in plundering our 
seas, ravaging our coast, burning our towns, and 



Notes. 187 

destroying the lives of our people, and when, in 
the summer of 1779, the royal Governor of New 
York, William Tryon, had burned East Haven, 
Fairfield, and Norwalk, in Connecticut, on Long 
Island Sound, and openly insulted the defenceless 
inhabitants, he boasted of his extreme leniency in 
leaving a single house standing on the New 
England coast. And British ministers often 
disgusted their own people by repeating that boast. 

43 One of the great foundations of the British 
Constitution was obtained from Charles the First 
by Parliament, in 1628, by his signature to a bill 
which recognized all the legal privileges of the 
subject. On the accession of William and 
Mary, in 1689, a Bill of JRigJits, declaratory of 
the franchises of British subjects, was passed, and 
received the royal signature. It is the only 
written laiv respecting the liberties of the British 
people, exeept Magna Charta — the Great Charter. 

44 For ten long years, the colonists petitioned 
the King and Parliament for justice, and a redress 
of grievances. Instead of listening and com- 
plying, the government denied their prayer, some- 
times with indifference, at others with insults, and 
again by an accumulation of oppressive measures, 
which restricted personal liberty and commercial 
operations. 

45 First Kings, chapter xviii. Baal, or Belus, 
was the chief idol among the idolatrous nations 
of Canaan and vicinity. 



1 88 Notes. 

46 The crocodile was worshipped in only some 
portions of Ancient Egypt; in others it was 
warred upon ; and the ichneumon, which destroyed 
its eggs, was regarded with great favor. Many 
mummied crocodiles have been found at Thebes, 
and at the modern Maahdah, where extensive 
grottos contain them. Persons were sometimes 
eaten by the beast, after having adored it. 

47 In almost every speech from the throne, con- 
cerning the American people, the King used 
honeyed words, and the colonists were often 
deceived by false hopes, springing from the prom- 
ises of " His Most Gracious Majesty," which 
ministers compelled him to break. The hopes 
which budded in the warmth of these promises, 
were uniformly blasted by the frosts of Parlia- 
mentary action. 

48 In consequence of the destruction of tea in 
Boston Harbor, [see note 31, p. 257,] and other 
overt acts of rebellion, so called, Parliament, by 
enactment in the spring of 1774, ordered the port 
of Boston to be closed against all shipping, and 
suspended all commercial operations there. This 
is known as the Boston Port Bill, which was pro- 
ductive of more real misery, and greater irrita- 
tion, than any other of the obnoxious measures of 
the ministry. Soon after the passage of that bill, 
others, equally tyrannical, were adopted. Among 
them was one, whose operations were equivalent 
to a total subversion of the Charter of Massa- 



Notes. 189 

chusetts. Other colonies were threatened with a 
similar lash, if they dared to raise voice or hand 
against the omnipotence of Parliament. By that 
enactment, every thing pertaining to courts of 
law and equity was placed in the hands of the 
creatures of the government ; and the officers in 
the province were made independent of the people 
by receiving their salaries from the crown. 

4? Thomas Gage was a native of England, and 
was an active officer during the French and Indian 
War. He was appointed Military Governor of 
Montreal in 1760, and on the departure of 
Amherst from America in 1763, he succeeded that 
officer as Commander-in-chief of the British 
forces in America. He was appointed Governor 
of Massachusetts, in the place of Hutchinson, in 

1774, and went to Boston on the first of June, 
fully authorized and prepared to enforce the pro- 
visions of the Port Bill, by arms if necessary. 
He was naturally amiable in disposition, but in 
executing the will of his royal master, he became, 
necessarily, a tyrant. Gage was the last royal 
Governor of Massachusetts. Howe succeeded 
him as military commander in the summer of 

1775, and he went to England in the autumn of 
the same year, where he died in April, 1787. 

50 This is a law term, signifying " the power of 
the country," or the citizens who are summoned 
to assist an officer in suppressing a riot, or in execu- 
ting any legal precept which is forcibly opposed. 



190 Notes. 

51 Genesis, chapter iii. 

— "In at his mouth 
The devil entered, and his brutal sense 
In heart or head, possessing, soon inspired 
With act intelligential." 

Paradise Lost, Book IX. 

52 A writ of ejectment. 

53 At the commencement of the contest, loyalists 
and timid republicans, desirous of conciliating 
government officers, formally addressed them, 
and assured them of friendship and support. In 
Boston, in 1774, when General Gage was enforcing 
the Port Bill with rigor, one hundred and twenty 
merchants and others, signed an address to Gage, 
expressive of their gratitude and loyalty, and 
even went so far as to offer to pay the East India 
Company for the tea destroyed in December pre- 
vious. There were some others who protested 
against the course of the Committee of Corre- 
spondence, and the action of a large portion of the 
ministers of the Gospel in New England, who, 
they averred, were unduly exciting the people, 
and urging them to ruin. These " Addressors 
and Protestors " were summarily dealt with by 
the Whigs, and many of them were compelled to 
sign a recantation which the General Committee 
of Correspondence for Massachusetts declared 
satisfactory. Those who would not sign it left 
the province, and became the first Refugee Royal- 



Notes. 191 

ists. See Lossing's Pictorial Field Book of the 
Revolution, i., 512. 

54 At the commencement of the war, great 
prejudice prevailed throughout most of the colo- 
nies, and especially in* New England, against the 
clergy, and even many of the laity of the Church 
of England, as the Protestant Episcopal Church 
was called. There were many reasons for this 
prejudice. For a long time Archbishop Seeker 
and others had labored zealously in efforts to 
establish Episcopacy in America, which the colo- 
nists regarded as another form of oppression, 
because it was so intimately connected with the 
throne ; so they strenuously resisted such efforts. 
Sometimes newspaper and pamphlet controversies 
on the subject ran high, and were Very bitter. 
Cooper, of King's College, Auchmuty, Chandler, 
and other Episcopal clergymen, kept their pens 
quite actively engaged, while William Livingston, 
of New Jersey, was equally active with his pen, in 
opposition. The Church clergy constantly harped 
upon, and were in favor of the absurd doctrines of 
passive obedience, non-resistance, and the divine 
right of Kings, and were active in endeavors to 
produce divisions among the patriots. The fact that 
for several years previous to the Revolution, the 
whole bench of Bishops, in the British Parliament, 
were opposed to the colonists, and always advised 
coercive measures, made their class obnoxious to 
the patriots. Again, the Episcopal clergy gener- 



192 Notes. 

ally took sides with the Crown, and joined in the 
hue and cry against the leading Whigs. One of 
their writers, in Hugh G-aine's New York Mer- 
cury, in 1768, supposed to have been Dr. Auch- 
muty, of Trinity Church, or Professor Vardell, of 
King's College, thus alluded to Livingston, in a 
long poem. It must be remembered that Liv- 
ingston wrote anonymously : 

" Some think him a Tindall, some think him a Chubb, 
Some think him a Ranter, that sports from his tub ; 
Some think him a Newton, some think him a Locke, 
Some think him a Stone, some think him a Stock. 
But a Stock he at least may thank Nature for giving, 
And if he's a Stone, I pronounce it a Living." 

55 The stories of the wonderful exploits of St. 
Anthony and his pigs, and of St. Austin preach- 
ing to the fishes, are told in the Popish legends. 

56 William Walter, D. D., was rector of Trinity 
Church, Summer street, Boston. He was placed 
over that congregation in 1768, and left his people 
early in 1776, after this canto of M'Fingal was 
written. He was an addressor of Gage, and was 
among the proscribed and banished. He was 
afterwards Chaplain to De Lancey's Third Bat- 
talion of American Loyalists, and at the close of 
the war he went to Nova Scotia, and took charge 
of a church at Shelburne. He died at Boston, 
in the year 1800. Before he left his flock in 
Boston, he preached many furious discourses 
against rebellion, and often warned his people of 



Notes. 



*93 



the dangers of the halter that awaited those who 
lifted their hands against " the powers that be." 

57 Samuel Auchmuty, D. D., was the son of an 
eminent lawyer and Judge of Admiralty, in 
Massachusetts. He was a graduate of Harvard 
College, and received his Doctorate of Divinity 
from Oxford, England. He was chosen rector of 
Trinity Church, in New York, on the death of 
Dr. Barclay, in 1764, and continued his connec- 
tion until the summer of 1776, when, with his 
family, he retired to New Jersey. He died the 
following spring. His sermons, before the break- 
ing out of the war, were strongly denunciatory of 
the Sons of Liberty, as the associated patriots 
were called, the most prominent of whom, in New 
York, was Isaac Sears, (commonly known as 
" King Sears,") who was a member of his church, 
and at the close of the war, was a vestryman. In 
April, 1775, Dr. Auchmuty wrote from New York 
to Captain Montressor, Gage's Chief Engineer in 
Boston : " We have lately been plagued with a 
rascally Whig mob here, but they have effected 
nothing, only Sears, the King, was rescued at the 
jail door. [See note 69.] * * * Our 
magistrates have not the spirit of a louse." 

58 Samuel Peters, D. D., was a native of 
Hebron, Connecticut, a graduate of Yale College, 
and a Tory Episcopal clergyman. His loyalty 
and his lack of judgment led him into many difficul- 
ties, and he became exceedingly obnoxious to the 

9 



194 Notes. 

Whigs. He was compelled to sign retractions 
and declarations, but, finding Hebron too hot for 
him, he fled to Boston, and took shelter under the 
British flag. He seems to have indulged a 
peculiar spite against his native State, and pro- 
posed a scheme for wiping it off the list of Com- 
monwealths, partitioning it between New York and 
Massachusetts. He went to England, and re- 
mained abroad until 1805, when he returned to 
America. In the meanwhile, he was elected 
Bishop of Vermont, but declined the honor. He 
had also written a History of Connecticut, which 
is a contemptible libel, and full of untruths. He 
never acknowledged being the author, but the fact 
is well known. In the years 1817 and 1818, he 
journeyed to the far North West, even to the 
Falls of St. Anthony. He died at New York on 
the 19th of April, 1826, aged 90 years, and was 
buried at Hebron. 

59 Myles Cooper, D. D., was President of King's 
(now Columbia) College, at the commencement of 
the Revolution, and for some years previous. He 
was educated at Oxford, England, came to Amer- 
ca in 1762, and the next year was made President 
of the College. His opposition to the patriots was 
violent and unrelenting, yet some of the students 
under his care, among whom was Alexander Ham- 
ilton, boldly defied his menaces. He became very 
obnoxious to the Whigs; and, finally, feeling 
alarmed for his personal safety, he fled in haste 



Notes. 195 

from the College, took refuge in Stuyvesant's 
house, near the East River, and made his escape 
on board the Asia, a British man-of-war. He 
went to England soon afterward, and never 
returned. He died suddenly at Edinburgh, in 
1785, at the age of fifty years. Among his papers 
was found the following epitaph, written by him- 
self: 

11 Here lies a priest of English blood, 
Who, living, liked whate'er was good ; 
Good company, good wine, good name, 
Yet never hunted after fame." 

c& Samuel Seabury, D. D., was the first Bishop 
of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America. 
He was a native of New London, Connecticut, 
where his remains were laid at death. He took 
orders in the Church in London, in 1753, and 
became pastor of a congregation in New Bruns- 
wick, New Jersey. He afterwards took charge of 
a small flock at Jamaica, Long Island, and from 
there he went to Westchester county, New York, 
where he was settled at the commencement of the 
Revolution. There he took an active part with 
the loyalists, and was one of a large number who 
met at White Plains, and signed a protest against 
" all unlawful Congresses and Committees," and 
expressed their determination " to support the 
King and Constitution," at all hazards. These 
proceedings made him a mark for public indigna- 
tion, and when, in the autumn of 1.775, a party of 



196 Notes. 

light horsemen from Connecticut, led by " King 
Sears," returned from destroying Rivington's 
printing press in New York, they carried Mr. 
Seabury with them as a prisoner to Connecticut. 
After his release, he became Chaplain in Colonel 
Fanning's American Regiment of Loyalists. He 
settled at New London, at the close of the war ; 
was consecrated bishop in Scotland in 1784, and 
presided over the dioceses of Connecticut and 
Rhode Island, until his death, in February, 1796. 
He was highly esteemed for his piety and learn- 
ing. 

61 Judges, chapter v. 

02 Revelations, chapter xiii. 

c3 A kind of paste-blacking, containing grease, 
and much used in those days for the preservation 
of shoes from the effects of water. It was made 
in the form of a ball. 

64 A soft, friable clay, which absorbs grease, and 
was much used in fulling cloth. 

fi5 In allusion to the sale of Indulgences in the 
Papal Church, by which, for certain sums of 
money, a man was allowed to commit certain sins, 
and even great crimes. This practice was com- 
menced by Pope Leo the Third, about the year 
800. Urban used them for revenue in 1090, and 
afterwards they were offered by the Roman Pon- 
tiffs as awards to the Crusaders. Clement the 
First made the first public sale of them in 1313 
In 1517, Leo the Tenth published general Indul- 



Notes. 



*97 



gences throughout Europe, and this great social 
grievance led to the Reformation, first in Ger- 
many, and then in England, in 1534. They were 
pardon for sins past, present, and future ; and 
were written upon parchment, and signed by the 
Pope or his legates. 
ti6 1 Samuel, chapter x. 

67 This refers to the position of the Pope of 
Rome, who is also a temporal prince. 

68 See Virgil's JEneid, book vi. 

63 James Rivington, printer of the Royal Ga- 
zette, in New York, during the Revolution. He 
came to America from London, in 1760, estab- 
lished a bookstore, first in Philadelphia, and then 
in New York, and in 1773 commenced his paper, 
first called the Royal Gazetteer. No man was 
more detested by the Whigs than Riviugton, and 
his paper received the name of the Lying Gazette. 
Frenau, another poet of the Revolution, gave him 
many hard blows ; and at public meetings he was 
everywhere denounced. In the autumn of 1775, 
a party of light horsemen from Connecticut, led 
by Isaac Sears, (one of the chiefs of the Sons of 
Liberty in New York,) rode into the city, dis- 
mounted in front of Rivington's printing office, 
and deliberately destroyed his press, and carried 
off his types. The following year, when the 
British had taken possession of New York, he was 
appointed King's Printer, resumed the publi- 
cation of his paper, and continued it until the 



198 Notes. 

close of the war, when, to the astonishment of all, 
he remained in the city unmolested, while far less 
sinful loyalists felt compelled to flee to Canada 
and Nova Scotia. The reason is in the fact, that 
he was false to his royal master, and that during 
the latter years of the war, while he was abusing the 
Whigs the most, he was secretly conveying intelli- 
gence to General Washington of all the important 
movements of the British in the city. See Los- 
sing's Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution, 
ii., 591. Kivington died in New York in July, 
1802, at the age of seventy-eight years. 

,0 Crean Brush was a conceited and sycophantic 
loyalist in New York. He was a native of Cum- 
berland county, (now forming a part of the 
southern portion of Vermont, next to New York,) 
and member of the Assembly. In February, 
1775, he made a speech against the appointment 
of delegates to the second Continental Congress, 
which was published. It was answered by Philip 
Schuyler and G-eorge Clinton. He continually 
opposed Whig measures ; and after the battle of 
Bunker Hill, we find him in Boston, ready, with 
supple muscles, to do the will of General Howe, 
in damaging the patriots. 

71 Dr. Myles Cooper, referred to in note 59. 

72 Isaac Wilkins, D. D., was the son of a rich 
West India planter, and when quite young was 
sent to New York to be educated. He prepared 
himself for the ministry, but did not take orders 



Notes. 199 

until some years afterward. He settled in West- 
chester county, became a member of the New 
York Assembly, and was considered a leader on 
the ministerial side. He had great influence, and 
chiefly through his instrumentality, a resolution to 
pass a vote of thanks to the New York Delegates 
to the Continental Congress, offered by the early 
martyr, Nathaniel Woodhull, was lost. His 
speech in opposition to the appointment of Dele- 
gates to the Second Continental Congress, is pre- 
served in Sabine's Lives of the American Loyal- 
ists. He was very obnoxious to the Whigs, and 
young Alexander Hamilton became his opponent 
with the pen. Wilkins soon abandoned the 
county, went to England, but returned to Long 
Island in 1776. There he remained until the end 
of the war, when he retired to Shelburne, in Nova 
Scotia. In the meanwhile he had taken orders in 
the Church ; and in the year 1800, he became rec- 
tor of an Episcopal parish in Westchester county, 
where he continued in the ministry until his death, 
in 1830, at the age of eighty-nine years. 

1Z Samuel Chandler was a High Church clergy- 
man, in New York, and was one of the earliest in 
that city to denounce the measures of the Sons of 
Libert}^. He became very obnoxious to the 
Whigs, and in 1775, he went to England, and 
never returned. 

74 Benjamin Booth was a stanch loyalist, and 
was for a time Secretary of the Loyal Refugees 



200 Notes. 

of the different colonies, whose head-quarters 
were in New York, under the protection of British 
arms. He called a meeting of the loyalists in that 
city in September, 1778, when, it appears, about 
two thousand of them were present. 

75 A series of well-written essays, against Whig 
measures, over the signature of " Massachusett- 
ensis," were published in Boston papers, between 
December, 1774, and April, 1775. The authorship 
was long attributed to Jonathan Sewall, but they 
were really the production of Daniel Leonard, of 
Taunton, Massachusetts, who was one of the 
Mandamus Council. [See note 85]. Leonard 
was a graduate of Harvard College, was bred to 
the law, and became an acute logician, and power- 
ful political writer. He was a member of the 
General Court of Massachusetts, and was one of 
the barristers, who, in 1774, signed an address to 
Governor Hutchinson. Bullets were fired into 
his house by a mob, and he took refuge in Boston 
in May, 1775. In 1776 he accompanied the 
British army to Halifax, and afterward became 
Chief Justice of the Bermudas. He died in 
London in 1829, at the age of eighty -nine years. 
His essays, above alluded to, were answered by 
John Adams, over the signature of Ci Novanglus," 
in a series published between January and the 
19th of April, 1775. Both were reprinted in 1819 
with a preface by Mr. Adams. 

Those powerful and widely-scattered engines 



75 



Notes. 201 

of the Revolution, Committees of Correspondence, 
became exceedingly hateful to the government and 
the loyalists. Massachusetts and Virginia have 
disputed the honor of originating them. They 
seem to have been conceived by leading pa- 
triots almost simultaneously in both colonies, 
in 1773, and in 1774; they existed all over the 
land. They were the depositories and distributors 
of secret information of every kind, and through 
them, concert of political action was seen every- 
where, from New Hampshire to Georgia. Of 
these " Massachusettensis " said, " This is the foul- 
est, subtlest, and most venomous serpent ever issued 
from the egg of sedition. It is the source of the 
rebellion. I saw the small seed when it was 
implanted; [by Samuel Adams] it was a grain 
of mustard. I have watched the plant until it 
has become a great tree. The vilest reptiles that 
crawl upon the earth are concealed at the root ; 
the foulest birds of the air rest upon its branches. 
I now would induce you to go to work immedi- 
ately with axes and hatchets to cut it down, for a 
twofold reason ; because it is a pest to society, 
and lest it be felled suddenly, by a stronger arm, 
and crush its thousands in its fall." 

77 Thomas Hutchinson, Governor of Massachu- 
setts, from 1771 until superseded by Gage, in the 
spring of 1774. He was a native of that province, 
held many important public offices, and wrote a 
valuable history of his native colony. Some of his 



202 Notes. 

obnoxious acts will be referred to hereafter. He 
became alarmed for his personal safety, and fled to 
England. The allusion of the poet is to a laudatory 
address which loyalists and timid Whigs presented 
to him, just before his departure. He died in 
England in June, 1780. 

78 Jonathan Sewall was a native of Massachu- 
setts, was educated at Harvard College, became a 
school teacher, and then a lawyer, and at about 
the year 1767, was appointed Attorney-General of 
Massachusetts. It is believed that he was dis- 
posed to take part with the Whigs, but had not 
the courage. He and John Adams were intimate 
friends, and that friendship was not broken, even 
after Sewall became one of the addressors of 
Hutchinson in 1774. Later in the season, he 
tried to persuade Adams not to attend the Conti- 
nental Congress, when the firm patriot used those 
remarkable words : " The die is now cast ; I have 
now passed the Rubicon ; swim or sink, live or die 
survive or perish, with my country, is my unal- 
terable determination." They never met again 
until after the war. Judge Sewall became Gage's 
chief adviser, and, it is said, wrote most of his 
proclamations. He was an essayist of some dis- 
tinction. His house at Cambridge was attacked 
by a mob, and he fled to Boston ; and in 1775 he 
went to England, and resided at Bristol. In 
1788, he came to America, and was made Judge 
of Admiralty in the province of New Brunswick. 



Notes. 203 

He died there in 1796, at the age of sixty-eight 
years. His wife was a sister of Dorothy Quincy, 
wife of John Hancock. 

19 Nathaniel Mills and John Hicks were printers 
of a ministerial paper in Boston. They opened a 
printing-house, as partners, in School street, in 
1773, and their paper, the Massachusetts Gazette 
and Boston Post Boy, became the government 
organ in that city. The commencement of hos- 
tilities, in 1775, put an end to their paper, and the 
following spring they accompanied the refugee 
loyalists who fled to Halifax with the British 
army, when Washington drove it out of Boston. 
They afterwards opened a stationery store in New 
York, and printed some for the royal army and 
navy. They were among the New York refugees 
who fled to Nova Scotia, at the close of the war. 

80 Margaret, was the widow of Richard Draper, 
printer of the Massachusetts Gazette and News 
Letter, who died in Boston, in June, 1774. Mrs. 
Draper continued the paper after the death of her 
husband. She became his successor as printer to 
the Governor and Council, and continued business 
while the British were in possession of Boston. It 
was the first and the last newspaper published in 
Boston, previous to the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. Mrs. Draper went to Halifax with the 
army, and from thence accompanied friends to 
England, where she received a pension until her 
death, a few years afterward. 



204 Notes. 

sl Judge Sewall wrote a farce called America 
Arouse. It was a dull affair — a farce of itself, 
aud not to be lauglied at. 

s2 The oppressive provisions of the Boston Port 
Bill, went into effect on the first of June, 1774. 
The Provincial Congress of Massachusetts ap- 
pointed that clay as one of solemn fasting and 
prayer, for the people of the province. 

83 In various places the people had signed a 
League, agreeing not to import or use tea in any 
way, while a duty levied by government without 
the consent of the colonists, remained upon that 
article. Yet men were found among loyalists 
bold enough to brave public opinion by becoming 
consignees. Intelligence reached America that 
ships laden with tea were crossing the ocean. 
The people gathered, and made preparations in 
several seaport towns to prevent the landing of 
the cargoes. Two tea ships arrived in Boston, 
late in 1773. The consignees were warned of 
danger, but refused to listen. They were threat- 
ened by mobs ; and one of them, Richard Clarke, 
had his house damaged by missies thrown by a 
crowd of excited people. Finally, on the evening 
of the 16th of December, a party, many of them 
disguised, went on board the tea ships, and cast 
their contents into Boston Harbor. The con- 
signees were despised as supple tools of the 
British ministry, and this popular demonstration 



Notes. 205 

kept them quiet and inactive ever afterward. See 
note 31, Canto iii. 

?4 Peter Oliver, a native of Massachusetts, was 
made, first a Judge of the Superior Court, and 
then Chief Justice of the province, notwithstand- 
ing he was not bred a lawyer, nor possessed a 
knowledge of legal science. He was graduated at 
Harvard in 1730, and possessed some learning 
and fair abilities, but was totally unfit for the high 
office which he held. Because he received his 
salary direct from the crown, instead of the people 
of Massachusetts, and thus became independent 
of the latter, he was impeached in 1774, and soon 
afterward went to England. He died at Birmino-- 
ham, in the autumn of 1791. 

85 A writ of mandamus is a command from a 
high power, to any person, corporation, or inferior 
court, requiring them to do some specified act 
which appertains to their office or duty. By the 
charter of Massachusetts, the Council had always 
been elective, but by one of the bills passed by 
Parliament in the spring of 1774, that charter 
was declared void, and the King appointed a 
council by mandamus. They were, of course, 
chosen from among the loyalists, and many of them 
accepted the office, and took the prescribed oath. 
These councillors became very detestable to the 
Whigs, who regarded their act as equivalent to 
joining the crown in its oppressions. 



206 Notes. 

86 " A proper emblem of his genius," says 
Trumbull. 

87 John Murray was a native of Rutland, in 
Massachusetts, a colonel of militia, and for several 
years a member of the General Court. He was 
one of the Mandamus Council, but was not sworn 
into office. Menaced by the "Whigs, he abandoned 
his house in the night, fled to Boston, and accom- 
panied the British army to Halifax in 1776. 
After the war, Colonel Murray became a resident 
of St. Johns, New Brunswick. His large pro- 
perty in the United States was confiscated, yet he 
left a handsome estate in St. Johns. 

83 Timothy Ruggles was an old stager in public 
life, having been a member of the Massachusetts 
Assembly as early as 1736. He was a man of de- 
cided talents and energy, a lawyer by profession, but 
for many years was a tavern-keeper in Sandwich. 
He loved military life, attained to the rank of a 
brigadier-general, and led a body of troops to join 
Sir William Johnson, in 1755. He was distin- 
guished in the battle at the head of Lake George 
that year. Two years afterward, he was appointed 
a Judge ; and in 1765, he was one of the Massa- 
chusetts delegates to the " Stamp Act Congress," 
assembled at New York. He was President of 
that body, but his conduct was so loyal toward 
the crown, that he was censured by the Assembly 
of his province. When the Revolution broke out, 
he was a violent opponent of the Whigs, and 



Notes. 207 

crowned his detested acts by becoming a Manda- 
mus Councillor. His house was attacked, his 
cattle were injured, and in terror, he fled to Boston, 
and endeavored to raise a volunteer corps of 
loyalists. He then proposed associations to act 
against the Whigs; and when the British army 
fled to Halifax, he was among the refugee loyalists 
who accompanied it. He afterwards appeared 
upon Long Island and Staten Island, and succeeded 
in raising a military corps of about three hundred 
men, called the Loyal Militia, but he did not per- 
form much service with them. His property was 
confiscated in 1779, and he went to Nova Scotia 
at the conclusion of the war. He died in 1798, 
at the age of eighty-seven years. Mercy Warren, 
in her drama called The Group, gives him the 
character of Hate-all, because he was a sort of 
social Ishmael. 

* 9 Josiah Edson, of Bridgewater, Massachusetts, 
was an active politician, and was known by the 
odious names of Bescinder and Mandamus Coun- 
cillor. He was a man of weak courage, and was 
rather a passive than an active loyalist, yet a 
mob attacked his house, and he was compelled to 
flee to Boston for safety, in 1774. He went to 
Halifax in 1776, and afterwards became a resident 
in the city (or its vicinity) of New York, where 
he died. He is represented as an amiable, virtuous 
and highly respectable man. But mobs make no 
distinction of persons, if their avowed principles 
are offensive. 



208 Notes 

90 Nathaniel Ray Thomas was a resident of 
Marshfield, and a graduate of Harvard University 
in 1751. Having become a member of the 
Mandamus Council, he shared in the afflictions of 
that unhappy body, who seemed to receive the 
special attention of mobs. He went to Halifax 
in 1776, and in 1778 his property was confiscated. 
He died in Nova Scotia in 1791. 

91 This was Joshua Loring, of Massachusetts, 
whose property was confiscated, and himself ban- 
ished. He became British commissary of prison- 
ers in Boston, and is charged with the perpetra- 
tion of most outrageous cruelties toward them. 
It is affirmed that when he fled to England, his 
wife did not accompany him, but remained as mis- 
tress of General Sir William Howe. An allusion 
is made to her in Francis Hopkinson's Battle of 
the Kegs, as " Mrs. L g." Loring left be- 
hind him a name most odious, and he never re- 
turned to America. He died in England, in 1782. 

92 Sir William Pepperell was a descendant of 
the first of that name, who settled in Maine, and 
was knighted by William the Third. He was 
educated at Harvard University, and was after- 
wards one of the Council of Massachusetts. He 
was continued in that office under the mandamus 
of the King in 1774, and, of course, became very 
odious to the people. He was denounced by his 
neighbors, and in fear he fled to Boston. He and 
his wife started for England in 1775, but she died 



Notes. 20 g 

on the passage. He was proscribed and banished by 
the act of 1778, and the following year his property 
was confiscated, under the conspiracy act. Ho 
was an active, benevolent and very useful citizen, 
and became one of the founders of the British 
and Foreign Bible Society. He was also Presi- 
dent of the Association of Loyalists, in London, 
formed in 1779. He never returned to America.' 
He died at his residence on Portman Square, in 
December, 1816, at the age of seventy years. He 
appears in West's celebrated picture, the " Recep- 
tion of the American Loyalists by Great Britain, 
in 1783," a copy of which may be found in Lossing's 
Field Book of the Revolution, vol. ii. page 667. 

93 William Browne was a grandson of Governor 
Burnet, was owner of an immense landed estate, 
and was one of the hated Mandamus Councillors' 
He was an active and popular man in Massachu- 
setts, prior to the Revolution. He was compelled 
to leave in 1776 ; and in 1779, his property was 
confiscated, and he became an exile in England. 
Afterward he was appointed Governor of the 
Bermudas. He died in England in 1802. 

94 John Erving, Jr., of Boston, was an addressor 
of both Hutchinson and Gage, and a Mandamus 
Councillor. He was therefore double-dyed in 
iniquity in the eyes of the Whigs. He fied to 
Halifax in 1776, and from thence to England. 
He was perpetually banished, and his property 
being confiscated by the conspiracy act of 1779, 



210 Notes. 

he never returned to his native country. He died 
in England in 1816, at the age of eighty-nine 
years. 

95 Henry the Eighth, of England, established 
Protestantism as the religion of the State, at about 
the middle of the sixteenth century, and during 
the reign of his son Edward, which commenced in 
1574, the tangible line of doctrinal difference 
between Luther and Calvin was drawn. The fol- 
lowers of the former allowed many of the ceremo- 
nials of the Church of Rome. Those of the latter 
were more austere, demanded more simplicity in 
the public worship, and great purity of Kfe. On 
the latter account, they were called Puritans, 
in derision. They were afterwards persecuted by 
both the Roman Catholics and the English church- 
men. Many fled to Holland, and from the Puritan 
congregation there, came the Pilgrim Fathers, 
who commenced settlements in New England, in 
1620. 

96 Harrison Gray was Treasurer, or Receiver- 
General of Massachusetts. He was an addressor 
of Hutchinson, and one of Gage's Mandamus 
Council. He became greatly detested by the 
Whigs on that account, and especially because of 
a pamphlet which he wrote, in which he charged 
the Congress of Philadelphia with being drunk 
when they signed the Continental Association. A 
copy of the Association may be found in the journals 
of the first Congress, in 1774. At the evacuation 



Notes. 211 

of Boston by the British, he went, with others, to 
Halifax, and from thence to England, where he 
died. On leaving, he parted with his only daugh- 
ter, who was the first wife of Samuel Otis, father 
of the late Harrison Gray Otis, of Boston. Mr. 
Gray was an excellent man, in every relation of 
life, and did not deserve the harsh language here 
made use of by the poet. 

97 The Earl of Dartmouth succeeded the Earl 
of Hillsborough as Secretary of State for the 
Colonies in 1772, and was in that station when the 
Revolution broke out. He was considered rather 
friendly to the colonies at first ; and was always 
favorable to mild measures. He and Doctor 
Franklin were warm personal friends. 

os rp ne u p rmie saint " alluded to was Governor 
Hutchinson, who always professed great friendship 
for the people of his native province. His own 
letters proved his hypocrisy, for while he was 
making these professions, he was writing to the 
ministry, declaring the necessity, in order to 
maintain government in Massachusetts, of destroy- 
ing the charter, abridging what he termed English 
liberties , making Judges dependant only upon the 
Crown, and creating a nobility in America ! 
Some of these letters were secretly placed in the 
hands of Dr. Franklin, then Provincial Agent at 
the English Court, and he transmitted them to 
Boston. Soon afterward, (1773,) finding himself 
suspected of advising the ministry to employ op- 



212 Notes. 

pressive measures, lie declared, in a message to 
the Assembly, that he had ever been an advocate 
of the rights of the province contained in the 
charter, and the equal liberties of the colonists 
with other British subjects. His letters were 
then published, and gave the lie to all his preten- 
sions. The excitement which they produced was 
intense, and, for a time, his person was in great 
danger. 

99 When Hutchinson fled to England, a spirit 
of revenge, uniting with his real sentiments 
respecting government in America, caused him to 
strongly urge Lord North to turn the screw of 
oppression still closer, and he remained a bitter 
and uncompromising enemy of the Americans. 

10n After the events at Lexington and Concord, 
Boston was menaced by an exasperated multitude, 
and General Gage became alarmed. He aban- 
doned his haughty tone and demeanor, and sought 
an interview with the select men, as the municipal 
trustees were called. A town meeting was held 
on the 22d of April, and an agreement was 
entered into between the local authorities and the 
Governor, " That upon the inhabitants in general 
lodging their arms in Faneuil Hall, or any other 
convenient place, under the care of the select men, 
marked with the names of their respective owners, 
all such inhabitants that are inclined, might leave 
the town with their families and effects," &c.,&c. 
The Tories remonstrated with Gage, and working 



Notes. 213 

upon his fears in another way, caused him to put 
obstacles in the way of the people who desired to 
leave, and finally, to refuse to grant passes alto- 
gether. He concluded it was better to keep the 
Whigs in the city, as hostages for the good beha- 
vior of their brethren outside, for really, 

" They were the only guards that saved him." 

103 When the news of the skirmishes at Lexing- 
ton and Concord swept over New England, the 
people flocked toward Boston by hundreds and 
thousands, resolved to chain the tiger upon that 
peninsula, or drive him into the sea. Israel 
Putnam, a veteran of the French and Indian War, 
and then a brigadier-general of the Connecticut 
militia, was among the earliest of the rallying 
minute-men of the East, and took command of 
the motley host by common consent, at first. 
Gage well knew the spirit of the man, and was 
in daily expectation that he would force his 
way into Boston, and " mutton him ; " in 
other words, destroy him and his army. Putnam 
was afterwards appointed one of the four major- 
generals, commissioned by Congress to assist in 
the command of the Continental Army ; and, he 
served his country well, until disabled by paralysis, 
in 1779. He lived in retirement after the war, 
and died in Brooklyn, Wyndham county, Con- 
necticut, on the 29th of May, 1790, at the age of 
seventy-two years. 



214 Notes. 

m Numbers, chapter xxx. 

103 In 1766, the Sons of Liberty, in New York, 
as the associated patriots who opposed the Stamp 
Act were called, after dining at Montague's, and 
procuring the sanction of the Governor, erected a 
mast or tall pole a little north-east of the present 
City Hall, in front of Warren street, and upon it 
was inscribed, " To his most gracious majesty, 
George the Third, Wm. Pitt and Liberty." These 
poles were erected afterward, and elsewhere, and 
became known as " Liberty poles," a name which 
they still bear. Around these poles the patriots as- 
sembled, and near them they sometimes punished 
Tory offenders, by stripping them naked, pouring 
warm tar over them, and then emptying a bag of 
feathers upon them. There were certain large trees 
in Boston, Norwich, Charleston and other places, 
where the Whigs assembled, which were called 
Liberty trees. These became very obnoxious to the 
friends of government, and attempts were often made 
to cut them down. The one in Boston, which 
stood at the corner of the present Washington and 
Essex streets, opposite the Boylston Market, was 
cut down by the British in 1775, with great 
parade. A soldier was killed by falling from its 
branches, during the operation, of whom some 
poetic wit of the day wrote : 

" Pale turned the wretch — lie spread each helpless hand, 
But spread in vain — with headlong force he fell, 
Nor stopped descending till he stopped in hell ! " 



Notes. 



215 



104 



This is in allusion to the church discipline of 
New England, when a person was obliged to stand 
in the aisle, called the " broad alley," name the 
offence he had committed, and ask pardon of his 
brethren. 



CANTO II 

1 This refers to the thrice-repeated words " Oh 
yes ! " used in opening courts,, and as a preface to 
verbal proclamations, and the commencement of 
the business of public meetings. 

2 The person here alluded to, was William 
Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, who was the 
Primate, or Chief Ecclesiastical officer of England, 
during a portion of the reign of Charles the First. 
He succeeded Abbot as primate, in 1633, and at 
the same time he was the prime minister of State. 
He held these exalted offices with a firm and steady 
rein, and with great energy he endeavored to re- 
press the Puritan spirit. The persecutions which 
he employed drove some of the best men from 
England to America ; and, it is said, that even 
John Hampden, and Oliver Cromwell, were, at one 
time, on the eve of embarkation for the New 
World. Laud became very obnoxious to all who 
disliked the hierarchy, and he was accused of high 
crimes, which were not proven against him. Popular 



216 Notes. 

hatred demanded his blood. The peers, overborne 
by the prevailing sentiment, pronounced him 
guilty, and he was beheaded on Tower Hill, on the 
10th of January, 1645, when 71 years of age. 
That was four years before his royal master 
met the same fate. Laud was an honest but mis- 
taken man. We must judge him by the spirit of 
the times in which he lived. 

3 In the edition of M'Fingal, revised by the 
author and published in 1820, there are the four 
following lines, immediately preceding this : 

" Who'd seen, except for these restraints, 
Your Witches, Quakers, Whigs, and Saints, 
Or heard of Mather's famed Magnalia, 
If Charles and Laud had chanced to fail you ? " 

The allusion to Cotton Mather refers to his book 

called Magnolia, in which he gives a ridiculous 

history of pretended miracles which occurred 

during the first years of the settlement of New 

England. In his "Wonders of the Invisible 

World," Mather gave an account of the delusion 

known as the Salem Witchcraft. Mather was a 

man of learning, yet he was a believer in witches. 

Although the settlements in America were 

nearly all made by private individuals, and at the 

expense of private capital, the King claimed to 

own the lands discovered by his subjects in the 

New World, and they were compelled to procure 

grants from him, by which certain privileges were 



Notes. 217 

given to the proprietor, who made the settlements. 
These charters were the original fundamental laws 
of all the colonies. That given to Rhode Island by 
Charles the Second remained in force as the Con- 
stitution of the State until 1843, when the people 
made a new one. The first charters were often 
annulled, and new ones were given ; and those 
charters in which privileges were defined were 
regarded by the people with great reverence. I have 
already referred in Note 30, Canto I., to the boasts 
of English statesmen, concerning aids given to the 
colonists. 

4 Although the ancient feud between France and 
England, as well as a difference in religion, caused 
the English and French settlers in America to 
regard each other as rivals, yet it was doubtless 
the quarrels of the parent government that made 
them actual and open enemies, and brought them 
into bloody conflicts. And in those wars the 
colonists bore much more than their own proper 
share of the burden. 

5 Generals Braddock, Abercrombie, Amherst, 
Loudoun, Wolfe and others, were sent over to con- 
duct the war that broke out in 1755, and oftentimes 
by their folly, arrogance, or tardiness, they thwarted 
the more enterprising provincials, and stood in the 
way of success. On the field where Braddock was 
killed, death and desolation were spread in all 
directions, until the fall of that officer, and others, 
placed the command in the hands of young Wash- 

10 



218 Notes. 

ington, when the fortunes of the day were imme- 
diately changed. In almost every instance, the 
provincial officers were more efficient than those 
of the regular army. The history of the tardiness 
and stupidity of Loudoun forms a disgraceful chap- 
ter in the records of England. Wolfe and Am- 
herst were the most efficient of all the English of- 
ficers who were sent to America during the French 
and Indian War. 

6 The energy and justice of Pitt were greatly 
applauded by the Americans ; and when, in the 
spring of 1759, his splendid scheme for the con- 
quest of Canada was to be put into execution, the 
provincials flocked to the standards of their chiefs 
with such alacrity, that the quota of soldiers called 
for was far exceeded by numbers. When Amherst 
came, he found twenty thousand troops at his dis- 
posal, and many others were eager to join the royal 
army. 

7 The first step toward the establishment of 
Episcopacy in America was at about the year 1748, 
when Dr. Seeker, archbishop of Canterbury, not 
only proposed the matter, but offered the mitre to 
several Puritan divines. Whitefield, the cele- 
brated field-preacher, said to Dr. Langdon, of 
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, at about that time, 
" I can't in conscience leave this town without ac- 
quainting you with a secret. My heart bleeds for 
America, poor. New England ! There is a 
deep-laid plot against both your civil and religious 



Notes. 219 

liberties, and they will be lost. Your golden days 
are at an end — you have nothing but trouble be- 
fore you Your liberties will be lost." 

He referred to the scheme then in preparation by 
the English hierarchy. The first important step 
was the sending over several Episcopal clergymen 
as missionaries, who had been ordained by the 
Bishop of London. These settled in the colonies; 
and those at the North, especially, became attached 
to the royal cause. The intention was to have the 
New England churches ruled by bishops ; but the 
Revolution swept the whole plan into oblivion. 

s The simple fact of sending troops to America 
to awe the people, produced much irritation in the 
provinces ; but when the colonists were called 
upon to contribute toward the support of these 
troops, they regarded the matter as downright op- 
pression. The New York Assembly refused to 
vote supplies, and for this contumacious act, Par- 
liament, in 1767, passed an act, " prohibiting the 
Governor, Council, and Assembly of New York, 
passing any legislative act for any purpose what- 
ever." This alarming disability caused the legis- 
lature of that province to make some concessions, 
yet the point was not yielded until 1769, when a 
small appropriation was made for the support of the 
troops. In Boston, the insolence of the troops 
greatly irritated the people, and finally they came 
to an open rupture early in March, 1770, which 
resulted in the death of several citizens. This 



220 Notes. 

event is known in history as The Boston Massa- 
cre. So in Wilmington in North Carolina, and 
in Charleston in South Carolina, and other places, 
the people were exceedingly rcstiff under the 
frowns of a military despotism. 

9 It has been asserted that a large portion of the 
old English peerage, created previous to the close 
of the reign of Charles the Second, have originated 
from the illegitimate progeny of the kings. It is 
to this fact, and the grievance of having such men 
bold all of the best offices of trust and emolument 
in the kingdom, that the author here alludes. 

] " At that time the urgent calls of an exchequer, 
depleted by recent wars and increasing pensions, 
caused the levying of very heavy taxes, even in 
Scotland and Ireland, where, hitherto, they had 
been less than in England. The Scotch mur- 
mured, and the Irish endured the burden with a 
bad grace, while the English people themselves, 
borne down by taxation, sympathized with their 
brethren in America, in their resistance to the 
same form of oppression. The chief cause of com- 
plaint was the pensioning of, and giving sinecure 
places to, undeserving scions of royalty or the aris- 
tocracy. And the Americans justly complained 
that the best offices in the colonies were filled by 
such men, to the exclusion of native-born citizens, 
who could justly boast of superior intelligence and 
virtue. 

11 Sir David Dalrymple was a ministerial writer 



Notes. 221 

of some eminence, and a lawyer and antiquarian 

of note in Edinburgh. He undertook at one time 
to prove that all of the celebrated British patriots, 
in the time of the civil war, were pensioners, in 
the pay of France. He based his charges upon 
the alleged fact, that the letters of the French am- 
bassadors in England disclosed the significant se- 
cret, that thousands of guineas were paid by them 
to Algernon Sydney, John Hampden, &c. He 
also alleged that Admiral Russell defeated the 
French fleet at a time when he was under a solemn 
engagement, and had received a stipulated sum, to 
be beaten himself. How far truth will support a 
theory founded on these alleged facts, cannot be 
easily determined. But it was from premises like 
these, that Sir David argued that " public virtue 
was but a name." 

12 Dr. Samuel Johnson also wrote against the 
Americans. His pamphlet entitled Taxation no 
Tyranny is an able paper. He, too, had no faith 
in patriots so called, and in public virtue. Like 
Cardinal Richelieu, he believed that every man 
had his price. A poet of the time, in an epigram, 
intimated that the doctor's price was paid to him 
for his defence of ministers. 

13 This is in allusion to the noble words of Samuel 
Adams, in the first Continental Congress, when a 
proposition of Joseph Galloway to make con- 
cessions to Great Britain elicited a warm debate. 
Adams regarded the proposition as a concession to 



222 Notes. 

tyranny, and, his soul kindling with patriotic zeal, 
he exclaimed : "I should advise persisting in our 
struggle for liberty, though it were revealed from 
Heaven that nine hundred and ninety-nine were 
to perish, and only one of a thousand were to sur- 
vive and retain his liberty ! One such freeman 
must possess more virtue, and enjoy more happi- 
ness, than a thousand slaves ; and let him propo- 
gate his like, and transmit to them what he has so 
nobly preserved." 

14 Sir Jeffrey Amherst, who commanded the 
British troops in America, in the final conquest of 
Canada. 

15 Amherst declared, on the floor of the House 
of Commons, that with five thousand regular 
troops, he could march from one end of the con- 
tinent to the other, unmolested. G-age repeated 
the foolish boast to Putnam, who instantly replied, 
" So you might, if they behaved themselves, and 
paid for what they got ; if not, the women would 
knock your soldiers in the head with their 
ladles." 

16 Colonel Grant was a meritorious officer in the 
French and Indian War, and was the successful 
leader of an expedition against the Cherokees in 
1761. He was a brigadier at the commencement of 
the Revolution, and led the division of the British 
army in the battle near Brooklyn, at the close of the 
summer of 1776, which first engaged the Americans 
under Lord Stirling. Grant made assertions simi- 



Notes. 223 

lar to those of Amherst, and added that nothing 
would exceed the speed of the Americans in their 
flight before an enemy. On several occasions 
during the Revolution, General Grant was com- 
pelled to run swiftly before the " rebels " he af- 
fected so much to despise, but never after them. 
At this he seems to have been very expert, and 

" Well skilled on runnings to decide." 

17 It is asserted that the roar of a lion will turn 
small beer sour. The lion is the emblem of Great 
Britain's courage and strength, and is the principal 
figure on the national escutcheon. It was origi- 
nally a leopard, according to a record of the year 
1252. 

18 Such declarations were continually made by 
North and his cabinet. They asserted the right 
of Parliament to tax the colonies, and declared the 
necessity of such a tax for the purposes of reve- 
nue. 

19 In the debate on the Boston Port Bill, in the 
spring of 1774, Mr. Van, a ministerial member of 
Parliament, used very violent language toward 
the people of Boston. " They ought to have their 
town knocked about their ears, and destroyed," 
he said, because of their destruction of the car- 
goes of tea in that harbor, a few months before ; 
and concluded his tirade of abuse by quoting the 
words of Cato the Censor, concerning Carthage, 



224 Notes. 

Delenda est Carthago — Carthage must be des- 
troyed. 

20 It cannot be doubted that among the measures 
for crushing the rising rebellion in America, 
adopted by the British ministry early in 1774, 
was that of exciting the Indians on the frontiers 
of the white settlements against their neighbors. 
In this work, a little later, the sons of Sir Wil- 
liam Johnson, in the Mohawk Valley, were 
engaged. Stuart, in the Carolinas, was busy 
among the Creeks and other frontier tribes ; and 
the Governors of some of the provinces had, 
doubtless, secret instructions on this point. Gov- 
ernor Gage and Governor Dimmore, of Virginia, 
were known to be employed in this nefarious 
business in 1775. In the autumn of that year, 
Dr. Connolly, of Pittsburg, visited General Gage, 
at Boston, and soon afterward, while on his way 
toward the Ohio country, through Maryland, he 
was arrested as a suspicious character. Concealed 
in his saddle were papers, which revealed the fact 
that he was commissioned to arouse and lead 
the Indians against the people of Virginia. Gov- 
ernor Carleton, of Canada, was also engaged in 
the same business ; and the effect of the agency of 
secret emissaries among the savages, was seen as 
the war progressed, in the terrible massacres every- 
where committed by the Indians, under the pro- 
tecting wing of British power. The horrid prac- 
tice of employing the Indians was severely com- 



Notes. 225 

mented upon in the British Parliament. A mem- 
ber attempted to justify the measure by saying, 
that they had a right to employ the means " which 
God and nature had put into their hands." The 
great Pitt scornfully repeated these words, and 
said, " These abominable principles, and this most 
abominable avowal of them, demands most deci- 
sive indignation. I call upon that right reverend 
bench (pointing to the Bishops), those holy minis- 
ters of the Gospel and pious pastors of the Church, 
I conjure them to join in the holy work, and to 
vindicate the religion of their God." But " those 
holy ministers" had no word of condemnation. In 
the Declaration of Independence the King was 
charged with endeavors " to bring on the inhabi- 
tants of our frontiers the merciless Indian sava- 
ges," and the proofs of the truth of that charge 
were many and undeniable. 

21 Guy Carleton (afterward Lord Dorchester), 
was Governor of Canada from 1772 to 1781, when 
he succeeded Sir Henry Clinton as Commander- 
in-Chief of the British army in America. He 
was made Governor of Quebec, Nova Scotia, and 
New Brunswick in 1786. As a reward for long- 
services he was raised to the peerage. He died in 
1808, at the age of eighty-five years. It is due to 
his memory to say, that he doubtless was opposed 
to the employment of the savages against the 
Americans. He was a very humane man, as his 

kindness to American prisoners often proved. 
0* 



226 Notes. 

Guy Johnson was a son of Sir William John- 
son, by a sister of Brant, the great Mohawk 
Chief. He had great influence over the Iroquois, 
and in 1775 he, in connection with the Butlers and 
Brant, held a large council of Indians, composed 
chiefly of Cayugas and Senecas. After the war 
he was an Indian agent in Canada. 

22 Guy, Earl of Warwick, was called the King- 
maker. He was killed at the battle of Barnet in 
April, 1471. He is very celebrated in the martial 
annals of Great Britain. 

23 The Dun cow is celebrated in tradition as a 
fierce animal that roamed over a heath, and had 
killed many people. She was twelve feet in height 
from hoof to shoulder, and eighteen feet in length 
from the neck to the root of the tail. The young 
and fiery Guy undertook to kill the beast, in order 
to win a mistress. He did so, and the heath still 
bears the name of Dunsmore. This is supposed 
to be a myth, and that the cow was a Countess, 
who led a disreputable life, and ruined many young- 
lords by winning their estates from them at card- 
playing. Guy beat her at the game, and so the 
destroyer was conquered. 

- 4 Among the threats of royal Governors in the 
slave-holding provinces, was that of giving these 
bond-servants their freedom, and letting them 
loose, like bloodhounds, upon their masters. And 
this was no idle threat. Nothing but the general 
attachment of the slaves to their masters prevented 



Notes. 227 

the perpetration of the most frightful massacres. 
When, in June, 1775, Lord Dunmore, the Governor 
of Virginia, fled for safety to a British man-of-war, 
his first vindictive and retaliatory efforts were to call 
the slaves to his standard, under a promise of free- 
dom. Many obeyed the call, and were in the bat- 
tle at the Great Bridge, twelve miles from Nor- 
folk, in December following. Hundreds of them 
afterwards miserably perished. The same thing 
was attempted, by authority, in the Carolinas ; and 
in Boston a company of negroes was formed and 
regularly enrolled. Yet the negroes were not all 
" loyal," for we find that, on one occasion, when 
they had been ordered to assemble in Faneuil Hall, 
to choose from among their number proper per- 
sons to clean the streets, Caesar Merrian, in the 
presence of Joshua Levering, moderator, dared to 
oppose the measure, for which he " was committed 
to prison, and confined until the streets were all 
cleaned." The Declaration of Independence says, 
" He has excited domestic insurrection among us," 
and these facts are the proofs. 

:5 This was a specimen of M'Fingal's " second 
sight," for there was, as yet, no Bishop in America. 

26 The negroes who enlisted in the army in Bos- 
ton were chiefly slaves of the whigs who had left 
the town. They were dressed in the scarlet uni- 
form of the British army, a color particularly 
adapted to win the black man, who is fond of show. 



228 Notes. 

- 1 " The stones and all the elements with thee 
Shall ratify a strict confed'racy ; 
Wild beasts their savage temper shall forget, 
And for a firm alliance with thee treat." 

Blackmore 1 s Paraphrase of Job. 

28 These were the materials employed against 
the Americans by the British ministry previous to 
the sending over German troops, mentioned in 
Note 15, Canto I. 

29 "When Gage proceeded to Boston to enforce 
the Bort Bill, he ordered two additional regiments 
to march there. They entered Boston with great 
display, and encamped on the Common, or Mall. 
Other troops soon joined them, and as the people 
refused to give them shelter, they all remained en- 
camped on the Common during the summer of 
1774. The contending political parties wrote and 
published much. Massachusettensis (See Note 
75, Canto I.) began his essays, and John Adams 
soon answered them. Gage sent out proclamation 
after proclamation, and the patriots met him with 
" squib for squib" at every turn. His proclama- 
tions were very bombastic, and were much ridi 
culed. They were sometimes paraphrased in 
rhyme. The following is a specimen of one of 
these : 

" Tom Gage's proclamation, 
Or blustering denunciation, 
(Replete with defamation,) 
Threatening devastation 



Notes. 229 

And speedy jugulation, 

Of the New English nation, 

Who shall his pious ways-shun." 

This was the commencement. Then followed a 
paraphrase, and the whole ended with, 

" Thus graciously the war I wage, 
As witnesseth my hand, 

Tom Gage 
By command of Mother Carey, 

Thomas Flucker, Secretary. 

Flucker was the Secretary of Massachusetts un- 
der Gage. He was the father of Lucy, the wife 
of General Henry Knox, the Commander-in-Chief 
of the artillery of the Continental army. 

30 Gage's fears made him more of a tyrant than 
he wished to be. Alarmed by hostile demonstra- 
tions on all sides, he first stationed a strong guard 
upon Boston Neck, which connected the peninsula 
with the main, at Roxbury, with the avowed shal- 
low pretence that he wished to prevent desertions 
from his ranks. He next commenced erecting a 
line of fortifications across the Neck. Boston 
carpenters could not be hired to do the work, and 
mechanics from New York were employed for the 
purpose. These things greatly irritated the peo- 
ple, because they were proofs of the manifest inten- 
tion of Government to coerce them into submission 
to unjust laws. 

31 Matthew, xvii. 27. 

32 Numbers, Chapter xii. 



230 Notes. 

33 When Rome was invested by the Gauls, al- 
most four hundred years before the birth of Christ, 
a noble band of citizens and soldiers shut them- 
selves up in the Capitol. One night the Gauls 
climbed up the steep rocks of the Capitoline Hill, 
and were about to kill the sentinels and capture 
the garrison, when some geese, being awakened by 
the noise, cackled so loudly that they aroused the 
soldiers in time to save the Capitol, and perhaps 
the Roman Empire. 

34 See an account of Bishop Atterbury's trial, 
in the Histories of England. Francis Atterbury 
was Bishop of Rochester and Dean of Westminster. 
He favored the Stuarts, and being suspected of 
being in league with the old Pretender, son of 
James the Second, he was sent to the Tower on a 
charge of treason, in 1722. He was banished the 
following year, and died at Paris in 1732. 

85 Exodus, Chapter viii. 

35 A noodle meant simpleton. This term was 
much in use formerly. 

37 The exact origin of Yankee Doodle, our na- 
tional air, is not positively known. There was a 
popular song adapted to the old air of Nancy Daw- 
son, composed and sung in derision of Cromwell, 
by the Cavaliers and other loyalists, which com- 
menced thus : 

" Nankey Doodle came to town, 
Riding on a pony, 
With a feather in his hat 
Upon a macaroni." 



N Q T E S . 23I 

A " doodle " is defined in the old English diction- 
aries, as " a sorry, trifling fellow," and the term 
was thus applied to Cromwell. A " macaroni " 
was a knot on the hat, on which a feather was 
fastened. In a satirical poem accompanying a 
caricature of William Pitt, published in 1766, in 
which he appears on stilts, the following stanza 
occurs : 

" Stamp act ! le diable ! dat is dc job, sir ; 
Dat is in de stiltman's nob, sir, 
To be America's nabob, sir. 
Doodle, noodle, do." 

The air of Yankee Doodle was known in New 
England, long before the Revolution, as " Lydia 
Fisher's Jig ; " and in 1755, a surgeon in the 
British army at Albany, composed a song to that 
air, in derision of the uncouth appearance of the 
New England troops then assembled there. He 
called it " Yankee Doodle." The air was popular 
as martial music ; and we find on record that 
when, in 1768, British troops arrived in ships in 
Boston harbor, " the Yankee Doodle tune was the 
capital piece in the band of music at Castle Wil- 
liam." The change in spelling the first word from 
Yankey to Yankee, did not occur until after the 
Revolution. While the army under Washington 
was at Cambridge, in 1775, some loyal poet wrote 
a long string of doggerel verse, in derision of the 
New England people, and troops,- commencing : 



232 Notes. 

"Father and I went down to camp, 
Along with Captain Goodwin, 
There we see the men and boys 
As thick as h&stj-puddin 1 ." 

See Note 1, Canto I. 

38 The people in Boston, and the army there, 
after Gage's arrival, held toward each other the 
most bitter animosity, and that was often inflamed 
by tbe wicked or injudicious conduct of subordi- 
nate officers. Among sinners of this kind, was 
Lieutenant Colonel Nesbitt, who, at the beginning 
of 1775, took great pains to insult and injure tbe 
Americans. The country people sometimes came 
into town, to buy muskets for hunting. On one 
occasion Nesbitt instructed a soldier to sell one of 
them an old rusty musket. The purchaser was 
an inoffensive man, who sold vegetables, and paid 
the soldier three dollars for the gun. He was al- 
most immediately seized under a false charge of 
carrying arms for a treasonable purpose, and 
thrown into the guard-house. Early the next 
morning punishment was adjudged, and he was 
stripped naked, furnished with a covering of tar 
and feathers, placed upon a cart, paraded the 
length of the city and back, and was taken to 
Liberty Tree. This brave act was performed by 
about thirty grenadiers of the 47th regiment, with 
fixed bayonets, and twenty drums and fifes playing 
the Rogue's March. The procession was headed 
by Nesbitt with a drawn sword. The indignant 



Notes. 233 

people flocked to Liberty Tree, when the alarmed 
soldiers fled to their barracks, and the poor man 
was rescued. 

The origin of the punishment by tar and feathers, 
has been fixed at the period of the Revolution, by 
most writers. According to the Pictorial History 
of England, vol. i. page 487, quoted in Duyck- 
i nek's Cyclopedia of American Literature, the 
" plumeopicean robe " is as old as the crusaders. 
Richard Coeur de Lion made the regulation that 
" A man convicted of theft or 'pickerie,' was to 
have his head shaved, and hot pitch poured upon his 
bare pate, and over the pitch the feathers of some 
pillow or cushion were to be shaken, as a mark 
whereby he might be known as a thief. ,, 

39 Caligula was the most detested of the Roman 
Emperors, because of his ferocious and dissipated 
character. In the year of our Lord 16, he led 
an army to the shores of Gaul, for the purpose of 
invading Britain, but he did not embark. He 
there ordered a charge to be sounded, and a signal 
to be made for engaging an enemy. But no enemy 
of course, appeared. His soldiers were then di- 
rected to gather cockle-shells, to be sent to Rome 
as " spoils of the ocean," and these adorned the 
ridiculous triumph which a corrupt senate decreed 
for him. 

40 After a siege of ten years, ancient Troy was 
taken b.y the Greeks, through strategy. Finding 
they could not gain a forcible entrance into the 



234 Notes. 

city, they constructed an enormous wooden horse, 
introduced many armed men into its body, and 
then made a pretended retreat toward the sea- 
shore, leaving the colossal beast near the walls. 
Sinon, one of the Greek warriors, went to Troy 
with his hands bound behind him, and solemnly 
assured the Trojans of the absolute abandonment 
of the siege by the Greeks. He then advised 
them to convey the great horse into the city, as a 
trophy. It was done, and during that night, 
Sinon opened the secret door in the side of the 
horse, and let out the armed Greeks. They sur- 
prised the Trojans, pillaged the city, and Troy 
fell! 

41 Colonel Leslie was one of the most useful of 
the British officers who came to America to " crush 
the rebellion." He arose to the rank of brigadier, 
whilst here, and was the last commander-in-chief 
of the British army at Charleston. His services 
at the south, under Cornwallis, were very highly 
commended, and he was generally esteemed by 
the Americans as a judicious, honorable, and hu- 
mane commander. 

42 Marblehead was originally a part of Salem, 
and is about sixteen miles from Boston. It was 
remarkable for its fishermen at the time of the 
Revolution. Colonel Glover of the Continental 
Army, was from that town, and he employed 
many seamen from that place in conveying the 
Americans across the East river in the retreat of 



Notes. 235 

the army from Brooklyn to New York in Septem- 
ber, 1776. They also transported American stores 
in boats, from New York to Dobbs' Ferry. 

43 See Homer's description of the battle of the 
frogs and mice. 

44 On Sunday, the 26th of February, 1775, 
Colonel Leslie, with about three hundred men, 
was sent by Gage to seize some brass cannons and 
gun-carriages in possession of the Americans at 
Salem. They proceeded very secretly in a trans- 
port, which was moored at Marblehead before any 
of the soldiers appeared. They then rushed 
ashore, and commenced their march through the 
town. The people were engaged in public wor- 
ship. Leslie's intentions being suspected, intelli- 
gence was immediately sent to Colonel Timothy 
Pickering, who called out the minute-men, and at 
an opened drawbridge near Salem, he confronted the 
British. A parley ensued, and Leslie agreed that 
if the people would close the bridge, and let him 
pass over in due form of invasion, he would immedi- 
ately return. The terms of the treaty were complied 
with, and Leslie, like a sensible man, returned 
to Boston. Had he possessed the folly of some of 
the British officers, he would have given to Salem 
the honor which now belongs to Lexington, of 
having been the scene of the first bloodshed in the 
Revolution. As it was, the news went to Eng- 
land that in Salem " the Americans had hoisted 
the standard of liberty." 



z-$6 Notes. 

45 Concord is a few miles from Lexington. There 
the stores were concealed, which Gage sought to 
capture or destro} r , when he sent out the detach- 
ment that was checked by the minute-men at Lex- 
ington. 

46 General Ga^re, in his letter to Governor Trum- 
bull concerning the affair at Lexington and Con- 
cord, pretended that his object in attempting to 
seize the stores and munitions of war at the latter 
place, was " to prevent civil war," by taking dan- 
gerous weapons out of the hands of the people ! 

47 The important question after blood had flowed 
was, Which party began the war ? A great many- 
depositions were taken, and it was fully proven 
that the British troops first fired on the minute- 
men at Lexington, and killed several. The fire 
was promptly returned, however, in self-defence. 
Tn reference to this question, a writer in Ander- 
son's Constitutional Gazette, published in New 
York in 1775, thus states the matter : 

" The Quarrel with America fairly stated. 

" Rudely forced to drink tea, Massachusetts in anger 
Spills the tea on John Bull — John falls on to bang her ; 
Massachusetts, enraged, calls her neighbors to aid, 
And give Master John a severe bastinade. 
Xow, good men of the law ! pray, who is in fault, 
The one who began, or resents the assault ? " 

4s In former wars in America, the term Egular 
was applied to the British troops which came from 



Notes. 237 

England, to distinguish them from the provincials, 
or new levies in America. 

49 This refers to the distance the British had to 
retreat after the affair at Lexington. 

59 In his account of the skirmishes, General Gao-c 
was pleased to saj, " Too much praise cannot be 
given to Lord Percy for his remarkable activity 
throughout the whole day." 

51 This is explained in Note 3, Canto I. 

52 Gage endeavored to make light of the fact 
that he was so hemmed in by the Americans, who 
had gathered by thousands around Boston ; and 
in his last proclamation, issued before the battle 
on Breed's Hill, he said, " With a preposterous 
parade of military arrangements, they affect to 
hold the army besieged." 

53 The Mystic river is on the northeast side of 
the Peninsula of Charlestowc, on which are Bun- 
ker's and Breed's hills. 

04 In a late edition, the two following lines were 
added after the third line above this reference 
number : 

" Nay, stem with rage, grins Putnam, boiling, 
Plunder'd both Hogg and Noddle Island." 

These were two islands in Boston Harbor, from 
which the Americans carried off all the cattle, 
sheep and swine, to prevent their falling into the 
hands of the British. Gage really had no alter- 
native but to flee, or be driven 

"headlong to the sea." 



238 Notes. 

Howe, who succeeded him in command, was re- 
duced to the same alternative, and in March, 1776, 
he fled in his ships to Halifax, and the Americans, 
after a siege of several months, took possession of 
Boston. The British had been completely hemmed 
in upon the Boston peninsula from the 19th of 
April, 1775, until the 17th of March, 1776. 
Whenever they attempted to penetrate the country, 
or take possession of any of the islands in the har- 
bor, they were met with determined resistance. 

55 Matthew viii., 32. 

56 The British man-of-war, Cerberus, arrived at 
Boston on the 25th of May, 1775, with Generals 
Howe, Clinton, and Burgoyne, three officers expe- 
rienced in the military tactics of Europe, but unfit, 
in many respects, to conduct the war then just 
commenced. General William Howe was com- 
missioned commander-in-chief, in place of General 
Gage, who was recalled and went to England soon 
afterward. 

57 Popular belief ascribed very evil effects to 
comets, and they were generally regarded as omens 
of calamity. 

58 Abijah White was a member of the Massachu- 
setts House of Representatives, from Marshfield, 
and a warm adherent of the crown. He possessed 
very little judgment or discretion, and made him- 
self very ridiculous by the way in which he mani- 
fested his zeal. When the loyalists of Marshfield, 
in public meeting, adopted resolutions which ccn- 



Notes. 239 

sured the people of Boston for destroying the tea, 
he was employed to carry them to that city, and 
lay them before the governor. Pretending a fear 
of being robbed of them by the way, he armed 
himself with gun, pistol and cutlass, and, mounting 
his horse, appeared like another Hudibras. On 
arriving at Boston, he caused the momentous docu- 
ment to be published. This act drew upon him 
some of the wrath, but more of the ridicule of the 
whigs, and he disappeared from public life forever. 

59 It is related as a fact, that some British offi- 
cers, soon after G-age^ arrival in Boston, while 
.walking on Beacon hill one night, were much 
alarmed by noises in the air resembling the whiz- 
zing of bullets. They supposed they were missiles 
from noiseless air-guns, in the hands of the 
" rebels," and they fled precipitately to their quar- 
ters. They gave terrible accounts of this " nefa- 
rious business " in their letters to friends at home. 
The supposed bullets were the common beetles, 
with which we are all made familiar in the warm 
summer evenings. 

60 British officials, from ministers of state down 
to subalterns of lowest grade, were fond of threat- 
ening the Whigs with the pillory, whipping-post 
and gibbet. During the war, a son of Richard 
Henry Lee, of Virginia, was at school at St. Bees, 
in England. A gentleman one day asked the 
tutor, " "What boy is this ? " "A son of Richard 
Henry Lee, of America," he replied. The gentle- 



24O »N T E S . 

man put his hand on the boy's head and remarked, 
" We shall yet see your father's head upon Tower 
Hill." The hoy promptly replied, " You may 
have it when you can get it." That boy was the 
late Ludwell Lee, Esq., of Virginia. 

61 Called also " Heave«offering." Grain and 
fruit were waved or heaved toward the four cardi- 
nal points. It was a special present to the priests. 
See Numbers, chapter xviii. 

02 Cropping off portions of the ears, tying men 
to posts and whipping them, and confining them in 
a standing position in wooden frames called pillo- 
ries, were barbarous modes of punishment, for light, 
offences, at that time. 

63 Bunyan, in his Pilgrim's Progress, represents 
Christian as setting forth upon his journey with a 
very heavy bundle of all his sins, original and ac- 
tual, upon his back. 

e4 See Note 38, Canto II. The uniform alluded 
to was that of tar and feathers. The want of 
uniform dress in the American Army was a con 
stant theme of ridicule with the British at the be- 
ginning of the war. Mr. Kidder, in his history 
of New Ipswich, gives, from the lips of "an old 
soldier, a graphic description of his company when 
it joined the army of Gates a little while before the 
capture of Burgoyne. They all wore small clothes, 
and " not a pair of boots graced the company." 
Their coats and waistcoats were as various in 
colors " as the barks of oak, sumach, and other 



Notes. 241 

trees of our hills and swamps could make them/' 
Their arms were as various as their costume ; one 
had a heavy " Queen Anne" musket, that had 
' done service" in the conquest of Canada, and by 
his side would be a boy, carrying a little Spanish 
fuzec, captured, perhaps, at Havana. They all 
used powder-horns instead of cartridge-boxes, and 
occasionally a bayonet might be seen. A country 
blacksmith made the swords of many of the offi- 
cers, and in every particular they were as uncouth 
as could well be imagined. 

65 The ships that " ravaged our coasts " were not 
so benign as those of whom Waller sung : 

"Where'er our navy spreads her canvass wings, 
Honor to thee and peace to all she brings." 

06 Phoebus was another name for Apollo, or the 
Sun. 

67 While the British occupied Boston, they sent 
out military detachments to the neighboring islands 
to seize sheep and cattle. Many skirmishes with the 
Americans ensued on these occasions. And while 
the army occupied New York, these expeditions 
were very common, and sometimes resulted in con- 
siderable bloodshed. The Americans, also, had 
frequent occasions to send out foraging parties dur- 
ing the war. It was one of these occasions in 
which General Wayne was concerned, in New Jer- 
sey, opposite New York, that gave a theme to Ma- 
jor Andre when he wrote the famous poem called 
11 



242 Notes. 

" The Cow Chase." It was during a foraging ex- 
pedition of the British from Charleston, up the 
Combahee river, in South Carolina, that the last 
battle of the Revolution was fought, in which Col. 
John Laurens was killed. 

68 Charlestown was burned during the battle on 
Breed's Hill, June 17th, 1775.. Falmouth (now 
Portland, in Maine) was soon afterward destroyed 
by fire ; and on the first of January, 1776, Nor- 
folk, in Virginia, was also consumed, by order of 
Lord Bunmore. Later in the war, Danbury, Fair- 
field, and Norwalk were laid in ashes, and attempts 
were made to destroy other places. At Fairfield, 
the brutal Hessians, to whom Try on gave full lib- 
erty to ravage and destroy, excited by strong drink, 
cruelly treated the women who fell into their 
hands, and whole families were driven into the 
swamps for shelter against their infernal lusts. 
Elsewhere, at the North and at the South, this 
kind of cruel warfare was frequently carried on 
by British hirelings, assisted by the Tories, who 
were justly more hated by the people than the 
Royal troops, or their German fellow mercenaries. 

69 Admiral Graves first appears in the drama of 
the Revolution, as Commander of the British fleet 
at Boston, in 1775. He last appeared in the con- 
test in a sea-fight off the Capes of Virginia, a 
short time before the surrender of Cornwallis, in 
1781, which was the concluding great military 
event of the war. 



Notes. 243 

70 Sir James Wallace, a fussy, blustering, naval 
commander, bad charge of a little fleet of small 
vessels, in Narraganset Bay, to watch the move- 
ments of the Americans, plunder Rhode Island 
of sheep and cattle for the benefit of the British 
army in Boston, and to annoy the Americans gen- 
erally. And he did annoy the people very much, 
and sometimes distressed them very much. When 
he first sailed into the harbor of Newport, he 
dispatched a letter, in the following words, to Cap- 
tain Abraham Whipple, of Providence, who, in 
1772, commanded an expedition which burned the 
Gaspe schooner, in Narraganset Bay : 

" You, Abraham Whipple, on the 17th of June, 
1772, burned His Majesty's vessel, the Gaspe, and 
I will hang you at the yard-arm. 

James Wallace." 

Whipple immediately replied : 
" To Sir James Wallace: 

Sir : Always catch a man before you hang him. 

Abraham Whipple." 

Wallace was driven out of Narraganset Bay in 
the spring of 1776, and in the autumn of 1777, he 
went up the Hudson river and assisted in burning 
Kingston. 

71 The Sandemanians were a small religious sect, 
so named because Robert Sandeman, a native of 
Perth, Scotland, was the founder. Their leading 
tenet of belief was that " Faith is a mere intellec- 
tual belief, a bare belief of the bare truth." They 



244 Notes. 

also believed the Millennium near, and fixed upon 
the year 1793 as the time for its dawning. San- 
deman came to America in 1764, and organized a 
church or society in Boston, and also in Danbury, 
Connecticut. He died and was buried at the lat- 
ter place, in 1771, at the age of 53 years. His 
remains rest a few feet from those of General Da- 
vid Wooster. 

72 The unjust system of depriving whole fami- 
lies of property because of the political sins of 
the fathers, was commenced against the adherents 
of the Crown, first in Massachusetts in 1778, when 
a vast amount of property belonging to refugees 
who had fled, and some who ventured to remain, 
was confiscated. In 1779 the Massachusetts Le- 
gislature passed a conspiracy act, which sent into 
perpetual banishment a large portion of the same 
persons. 

13 The Tory party in New England worked upon 
the fears of the credulous and superstitious, by re- 
lating wonderful stories of strange appearances in 
the heavens, and strange noises in the air and un- 
der ground, and called them warnings of great 
troubles, if the Whigs persisted in their iniqui- 
tous proceedings. A remarkable meteor and 
Aurora Borealis were observed at the commence- 
ment of the war, and the superstitious were greatly 
alarmed. 

74 " The stars in their courses fought against 
Sisera." Song of Dehor ah. Judges v. 20. 



Notes. 245 

75 A play upon the name of Lord North, the 
Prime Minister. 

70 Referring to a scheme proposed by Hutchin- 
son and Oliver, in their letters to the British Min- 
istry. See Note 98, Canto I. When the Caro- 
linas were first settled, Shaftsbury and Locke pro- 
posed a magnificent scheme of aristocratic govern- 
ment in that portion of the New World, known 
as the Fundamental Constitutions. It contem- 
plated orders of nobility, and all the parapherna- 
lia of aristocracy except a King and Court. Even 
at that early day the people would not listen to 
such schemes, and they were abandoned. 

77 We have already noticed Hutchinson and 
Oliver. John Vassal, of Cambridge, was an Ad- 
dresser of Hutchinson, in 1774, and the next 
year he was driven from his house by a mob, and 
made his abode in Boston. Without waiting for 
Confiscation Laws, the Committee of Safety ap- 
propriated some of his property to the public use. 
Such appropriation consisted chiefly of the pro- 
ducts of the land, then in the fields. When Wash- 
ington arrived at Cambridge, he made Mr. Vas- 
sal's house his head-quarters. It is now owned and 
occupied by Professor Longfellow, the eminent poet. 
Mr. Vassal went to England, with his family. His 
property was confiscated in 1778. At the age of 
sixty years, he died in England. The Vassals 
were among the earliest and most respectable of 
the settlers in New England. 



246 Notes. 

78 These were the titles of James, the brother of 
Charles the Second, who afterward became King 
of England. The province of New Netherland 
was given to him by his brother, and when, by 
actual conquest, he came into possession of it, the 
name of the city of New Amsterdam was changed 
to New York, and that of the town of Fort Orange, 
near the head of navigation on the Hudson river, 
to Albany. 

79 James Jauncy was at first inclined to be a 
whig, and was an associate with Jay and others 
on the Committee of Correspondence of Fifty. 
He was a member of the New York Assembly in 
1775, and was one of the fourteen of that body 
who addressed General Gage on " the unhappy 
contest." He held the office of Master of the Rolls 
under the Crown; and his property was confis- 
cated. After the war, he applied to the legisla- 
ture of New York for a restoration of his pro- 
perty. 

80 Samuel Gales was also one of the fourteen 
Addressers of Gage, who were members of the 
New York Assembly in 1775. 

81 Colonel Christopher Billop was a man of pro- 
perty and influence. His house is yet (1857) 
standing on Staten Island, opposite Perth Amboy. 
It was there that Lord Howe held a conference 
with a committee of CoDgress on the subject of 
peace, in 1776. Colonel Billop was another mem- 
ber of the New York Assembly, who addressed 



Notes. 247 

General Gage. He afterward commanded a corps 
of Loyalists, was made a prisoner, and was con- 
fined in New Brunswick (New Jersey) jail, where 
lie was very harshly treated in retaliation of his 
cruelties to two American prisoners in his custody. 
After the war he went to the province of New 
Brunswick, where he became a prominent man. 
He died there in 1827, at the age of ninety years. 

82 See notice of Crean Brush, in Note 70, Canto I. 

83 See notice of Isaac Wilkins, D. D. Note 72, 
Canto I. 

84 Frederick Phillipse, of the Phillipse Manor, in 
Westchester County, New York, is here alluded 
to. He was the brother of Mary Phillipse, whose 
hand was once sought by George Washington, 
when he was a provincial Colonel. Phillipse was 
a member of the New York Assembly, and a colo- 
nel of militia; and finally, on account of his op- 
position to the whigs, he felt compelled to leave 
his home and take refuge under British protection 
in New York. From thence he went to England. 
His large property was confiscated, and the British 
Government afterwards allowed him, in compen- 
sation, about three hundred thousand dollars. 
Colonel Phillipse died in England. 

83 This was Dr. Myles Cooper, already referred 
to in Note 59, Canto I. He was a noted punster. 

85 John Vardell was educated at King's (now Co- 
lumbia) College. He there prepared for the minis- 
try, and became a professor in that institution for 



248 Notes. 

a while. He went to England in 1774, to re- 
ceive orders ; and after the death of Dr. Ogilvie, 
he was appointed to the rectorship of Trinity 
Church, in New York, He did not accept it, 
being, as is supposed, in the employment of Govern- 
ment. Before he left for England, he had written 
several poetical satires on the Sons of Liberty, 
and was quite noted as a political writer in prose 
and verse. 

S7 Two High Church clergymen of New York, 
already noticed. 

88 In note 9, Canto II, we have referred to the 
materials of which the old peerage of England was 
created. Adam was " created " of the dust of the 
ground. So the English technical phrase of 
" creating " a peer seems to be very appropriate, 
when we turn back to that old peerage, for surely 
it was of " low degree." 

89 See Note 47, Canto II, concerning the re- 
sponsibility of striking the first blow. 

90 These are the Alleghany Mountains, which 
extend from the State of New York to that of 
Georgia. They were then on the western frontier 
of the English settlements in America. 

91 The province of Georgia had not joined the 
union when the first Canto (of which this is a 
part) of McFingal was written. Georgia was rep- 
resented in the next Congress, however. 

92 See Note 29, Canto II. 

93 Demosthenes pursued a course of very severe 



Notes. 249 

self training, so as to excel in oratory. In order 
to acquire for his voice a mastery over greater 
sounds, he used to stand upon the sea-shore, in 
storms, and declaim amidst the roar of the waves. 
By this means he was enabled to make his words 
heard and heeded in the tumult of a great as- 
sembly. 

94 See Note 25, Canto I. 

95 At that time, and until a quite recent period, 
the pulpits in this country were covered by a 
canopy called a " sounding board," to assist in 
making the preacher's voice heard by the whole 
congregation. Drawings of such pulpits may be 
seen in Lossing's Pictorial Field-Booh of the 
Revolution, vol. i. p. 254, and vol. ii. p. 215. 

95 The Parcse or Fates of ancient mythology 
were Glotho the spinster, who spins the thread of 
our existence ; Lachesis, the allotter of our des- 
tinies ; and Atropos, the unchangeable, whoso 
shears clip the thread when life's mission is ful- 
filled. 

97 The Furiae of mythology were Alecto, the un- 
ceasing ; Megcera, the envier or denier ; and Ti- 
sijphone, the blood-avenger. 

98 See ^Esop's Fables. 
89 Genesis, Chapter xi. 

100 On some day in the week previous to the ad- 
ministration of the sacrament of the Lord's Sup- 
per in the New England Churches, a sermon was 
preached which was called a lecture, and that 
IP 



250 Notes. 

day was known as lecture-day. These lectures 
were generally very thinly attended ; a fact here 
alluded to by the poet. 



CANTO III. 

1 See Note 103, Canto I. 

2 See Gulliver's Travels, by Dean Swift, The 
Erobdignagians are represented as a race of 
giants. 

s " His spear, to equal which the tallest pine 
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast 
Of some great Admiral, were but a wand." 

Milton's Paradise Lost, Book I. 

4 At an early period of the contest, after the 
close of the session of the first Continental Con- 
gress in the autumn of 1774, the Americans used 
a flag with thirteen stripes, alternate red and 
white, to signify union. The stars on a blue 
ground were not used until late in 1777. Congress 
adopted the following resolution on the 14th of 
June of that year : " That the flag of the thirteen 
United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and 
white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white, 
in a blue field, representing a new constellation." 
This Canto was written at the close of the con- 
test. 



Notes. 251 

6 A mixed liquor, consisting of beer and spirits, 
sweetened, and warmed by thrusting a hot iron 
into it. 

6 A female, celebrated by the ancient poets as 
skilled in ma<ric arts and a knowledge of subtle 
poisons. She inhabited an Island, and all those who 
approached her were first feasted, and then, on 
tasting the contents of her magic cup, were 
changed into swine. She may properly be re- 
garded as the representation of Alcohol, or of 
sensual indulgence in general. 

7 Nectar, in mythology and poetry, was the 
beverage used by the Gods. 

8 At that time fire engines were not introduced 
into this country. Leather buckets were kept in 
almost every house, and especially by the members 
of fire companies, to be used for the purpose of 
extinguishing fires. One set of men were ap- 
pointed to use instruments for breaking into or 
pulling down buildings, and others, called " bucket 
men," supplied water. 

9 From time immemorial high poles, called May- 
poles, have been raised in England on the first day 
of May, and profusely garlanded with leaves and 
flowers in honor of the day, the ushering in of the 
summer wealth of the land. May-poles were 
places for joyful gatherings of the young, and 
doubtless suggested liberty-poles as the rallying 
points for public meetings. See Note 103, Canto I. 

10 Genesis, Chapter xi. 



252 Notes. 

11 Alluding to the electric conductors, or light- 
ning rods, of Dr. Franklin, then becoming quite 
common in America and Europe. 

12 See Note 7, Canto I. 

13 Numbers, Chapter xxi. v. 9. 

14 The great Charter of England, obtained by 
the English Barons, of King John, at Runny- 
mede, in the year 1215. In other words, & funda- 
mental constitution, which guaranties rights and 
privileges. 

15 This is in allusion to the depreciation of the 
Continental paper money. Congress ascertained 
the cause of its declension at different periods, by 
what was called a Scale of Depreciation. 

16 A grand national festival of the Jews, held 
every fiftieth year, when all debts were cancelled, 
all prisoners and slaves were liberated, and when 
all lands and estates, whether they had been sold 
or mortgaged, were restored to the original propri- 
etor. It was ushered in with trumpets and the 
most vehement demonstrations of joy. 

17 The courts of justice were everywhere closed 
at the commencement of the war, and those Judges 
who had been appointed by the Crown, and per- 
sisted in holding their seats, were driven from the 
court-rooms by the people, who assembled in mul- 
titudes, armed with white staves, the insignia of 
order. 

18 Alluding to the seizure of the property of 
Tories or Loyalists in the neighborhood of Bos- 



Notes. 253 

ton, after their flight into that city. See Note 
163, Canto IV. 

• 19 An old method of mild punishment, used even 
as far back as the time of the early Jews. The 
feet were confined in a wooden frame-work, so 
that the sitting delinquent could not move them, 
and in that situation he was subjected to the scoffs 
and rude insults of passers by. Hudibras, the 
great prototype of M'Fingal, was subjected to such 
punishment. 

20 The Loyalists often taunted the Whigs be- 
cause some of their leaders were mechanics and 
tradesmen. In the temporary theatres established 
by the British in Boston, New York, and Phila- 
delphia, during the war, these taunts formed a 
staple of the amusements. And these were con- 
tinued long afterward. On one occasion a play 
was in course of performance in a London theatre, 
in which American officers were represented as 
mechanics of every kind. In the midst of the 
hilarity which the play occasioned on that account, 
an American sailor in the gallery shouted, " Hur- 
rah ! England whipt by cobblers and tailors ! " 
The tables were turned upon John Bull. 

21 Unfortunately for Benedict Arnold, when his 
overt act of treason became known, he had not 
the redeeming antecedents of a good character to 
fall back upon. In early life he was an apothe- 
cary, and those with whom he served an appren- 
ticeship in Norwich, Connecticut, set him up in 



254 Notes. 

business in New Haven, where he also kept books 
and a general store. His sign — " B. Arnold, 
Druggist, Bookseller, &c, from London," — is yet. 
in existence. He. also became interested in the 
West India trade, and made several voyages 
thither. He sometimes traded in horses ; and it is 
said that the minute knowledge of the city of 
Quebec, displayed by him when he led troops across 
the wilderness to that place, in 1775, was obtained 
during his previous visits there for the purpose of 
buying horses. He finally failed in business, be- 
came a bankrupt, and was charged with saving a 
good deal of money by perjury. In this sentence 
there is an allusion to a curious lawsuit which he 
instituted against a brother skipper for slander. 

88 The author here remarks, in a Note, that 
" M'Fingal having here inserted the names and 
characters of several great men, whom the public 
have not yet fully detected, it is thought proper 
to omit sundry paragraphs of his speech in the 
present edition." These were never added. 

23 Hudibras, a satirical epic by Samuel Butler, 
is one of the few productions of that kind aimed 
at living characters or systems, which have sur- 
vived their age. Hudibras is a cavalier burlesque 
of the extravagant ideas and rigid manners of the 
English Puritans of the Civil War and the Com- 
monwealth. It was published after the restora. 
tion of monarchy; and it is understood that Sir 
Hudibras, the chief hero of the epic, was the 



Notes. 255 

representation of Sir Samuel Luke, a well known 
Bedfordshire gentleman, one of Cromwell's favorite 
officers. His character is strongly marked by the 
peculiarities of that period. Butler's model for 
the actions of his hero was Don Quixotte, of Cer- 
vantes. Hudibras is considered not only the best 
burlesque of the Puritans, but the best satire 
in the English language. 

" 4 This is a thrust at the many glaring defects 
in the Articles of Confederation — the original 
constitution of the Federal Union. They served 
a good purpose while the union was cemented by 
the necessities of the existing war ; but when Con- 
gress attempted to control the action of any of the 
States, it was powerless. These defects were so 
grave, that Washington and others took measures 
to have a revision of those fundamental statutes. 
A convention for that purpose was called, when it 
was found to be wiser to make a new machine than 
to attempt to patch up the old one ; and a second 
convention framed the present Federal Constitu- 
tion, in the year 1787. 

25 In issuing bills of credit, and in other trans- 
actions, Congress u pledged the faith of the United 
States," when, in fact, the States were not indi- 
vidually bound, by the old confederation, to redeem 
that pledge. The British ministry would not re- 
cognize the Congress as a legal body, and for a 
long time refused to hold any communication with 
its members, except as private individuals. And 



256 Notes. 

General Howe, under ministerial instructions, at 
first addressed letters to the American commander- 
in-chief, as " Mr. Washington," alleging that his 
commission was not valid, because not given by a 
legal body. Of course the general refused to re- 
ceive any communications thus addressed, and 
Howe was compelled to yield. 

26 Roger Bacon was a wonderful philosopher of 
the thirteenth century. He became a Franciscan 
monk, but his scientific discoveries and pursuits 
were so far above the comprehension of his asso- 
ciates and the age in which he lived, that he was 
generally regarded as a magician. Many stories 
of his magic arts were circulated ; among others, 
that he possessed a human head of brass, out of 
which issued wise oracles. His fellow-monks be- 
came afraid of him, discarded his books, and finally 
procured his imprisonment for twelve long years. 
He undoubtedly discovered gunpowder and the 
telescope, and made many wonderful experiments 
in chemistry. In his treatises he couched his in- 
formation in allegorical figures, and the then igno- 
rant world was left to guess at his meaning. All 
may be interpreted by the light of science at the 
present time. 

27 This political plan of Trinculo, the jester, in 
the Tempest, may be found in the old folio editions 
of Shakspeare, but, for some reason, it has been ex- 
punged by his commentators, and does not now 
appear. 



Notes. 257 

58 The Centipede. 

■ 9 The English Constitution comprehends the 
whole body of laws by which the British people 
are governed. Lord Bolingbroke made this nice 
distinction : " This assemblage of laws is distin- 
guished from the term government in this respect ; 
that the Constitution is the rule by which the 
sovereign ought to rule at all times, and govern- 
ment is that by which he does govern at any par- 
ticular time." 

30 See Note 76, Canto I. 

31 We have already alluded in Note 83, Canto I., 
to the destruction of tea in Boston harbor. It was 
done immediately after the breaking up of a popu- 
lar meeting in the Old South Church, Boston, on 
the evening of the 16th of December, 1773. Mr. 
Josiah Quincy had pronounced an eloquent and 
stirring speech in the course of the afternoon. 
Twilight approached, and a call was made for can- 
dles. At that moment, a person in the gallery, 
disguised as a Mohawk Indian, raised the war- 
whoop, and was immediately answered from with- 
out. Another voice cried out, " Boston Harbor 
a tea-pot to-night ! Hurrah for Griffin's wharf ! " 
At that wharf the two tea-ships were moored. The 
meeting broke up in great excitement, and several 
persons, disguised as Indians, were seen to cross 
Fort Hill to Griffin's wharf. There was evident 
concert of action, and about fifteen or twenty per- 
sons thus disguised, with others differently con- 



258 Notes. 

cealed, went on board the ships, deliberately took 
the chests of tea from the holds, broke them open, 
and cast their contents into the water. Three 
hundred and forty-two chests of tea were thus 
destroyed. 

32 The tea-ships were watched for twenty suc- 
cessive nights by parties of young men, to prevent 
the landing of the cargo. Under the Indian dis- 
guise, when the tea was destroyed, might have 
been seen ruffled shirts and laced vests ; for those 
who performed that act were among the most re- 
spectable residents of Boston. Samuel Adams, the 
sturdy patriot, was one of them. 

33 The moccasin is the flexible Indian shoe, gene- 
rally made of the tanned deer-skin, and is often 
highly ornamented. 

34 Wampum was the money of the Indians, and 
constituted expensive ornaments. It was made 
of the clear parts of the clam-shell, wrought into 
the form of small cylinders, like the beads of our 
day known as bugles, and about half an inch in 
length. They were arranged in strings and belts. 
When used for ornaments, they were disposed in 
alternate layers of white and black. As a circu- 
lating medium, they were valued at about two 
cents for three black beads, or six of the white 
ones. They were strung in parcels to represent a 
penny, three pence, a shilling, and five shillings of 
white, and double that amount in black. The al- 
lusion to " laces " refers to the respectable charac- 



Notes. 259 

ter of the persons engaged in the destruction of the 
tea, as mentioned in a preceding note. 

35 That is, painted their faces. A single coat 
of paint is technically called a priming. 

36 The British soldiers, whose coats were made 
of scarlet cloth, were called Red-coats. In allu- 
sion to the same color, the provincial troops in the 
French and Indian war sometimes called the 
British Regulars, " lobsters." 

37 Governor Hutchinson was very much alarmed 
at the proceedings of the populace in destroying 
the tea, and very early the next morning he re- 
tired secretly to his country-seat at Milton, a short 
distance from the city. There he received an in- 
timation that the mob was coming to pull down 
his house. With the utmost haste he escaped 
across the fields. The story was current at the 
time, that he was half-shaved by the barber when 
the alarming news reached him, and that in such 
plight — " in the suds " and bare-headed, he fled. 

38 See Note 85, Canto I. 

39 This alludes to the general breaking-up of all 
the councils of the royal governors in the colonies. 
These officials, unable to stem the current of pub- 
lic opinion and popular indignation, were compelled 
to relinquish their power and leave the country. 

40 Although some of the earlier organizations of 
the Sons of Liberty took place in the city of New 
York, yet the Loyalists held sway there in the 
public councils longer than in any other province. 



z6o Notes. 

When the Provincial Congress met on the 22d of 
May, 1775, its political complexion greatly disap- 
pointed the people ; for much timidity prevailed 
in the Assembly, and under the influence of Gov- 
ernor Tryon and the municipal authority, a major- 
ity of the members were favorable to conciliatory 
measures, instead of vigorous preparations for de- 
fence. For this reason New York was taunted as 
loyal, when the great mass of the people were 
really whig to the core. 

41 "When the skirmishes at Lexington and Con- 
cord became known in New York, Captain Isaac 
Sears, one of the boldest of the patriots of the day, 
was in custody on a charge of making treasonable 
propositions to the people. He was about to be 
taken to prison, when the populace took him forci- 
bly from the officers, and bore him in triumph 
through the town, preceded by a band of music 
and a banner. This is the occurrence alluded to 
by Dr. Auchmuty in Note 57, Canto I. The peo- 
ple also took possession of the City Hall, armed 
themselves, and, led by John Lamb, Marinus Wil- 
lett, John Morin Scott, and others, they embar- 
goed all vessels in the harbor, laden with provisions 
for the British army in Boston. A cargo of rum 
for the patriots arrived. The collector of the port 
would not allow it to be landed. Sears and Lamb, 
with a large concourse of people, took possession 
of it, carried it to its destination in the city, and, 
returning to the custom-house, they demanded and 



Notes. 261 

received the keys of that establishment, dismissed 
the employees, and closed the building. All the 
money and arms in the custom-house were seized ; 
and during the summer many of such overt acts 
of rebellion were committed by the highly exas- 
perated people. Tories were insulted ; and on 
one occasion, when the Sons of Liberty were carry- 
ing off the cannon from Fort George and the Bat- 
tery, and the Asia man-of-war fired upon them, 
the story was circulated that the city was about to 
be pillaged and burnt. Hundreds of men, women 
and children, frightened by the rumor, hurried off 
at midnight beyond the suburbs of the doomed 
town. 

42 This is in allusion to the quandary in which 
events placed William Smith, an eminent lawyer 
of New York, who seemed very desirous of being 
on the strongest side. He first opposed the mea- 
sures of Great Britain, but finally adhered to the 
crown, and became a very decided Loyalist. He 
was brother to Joshua Hett Smith, who figured in 
the Arnold and Andre episode. Smith afterward 
became Chief Justice of Canada. 

43 Burning or hanging the effigy of an obnoxious 
officer was a common practice, and is still con- 
tinued. It was an indication of the public senti- 
ment against a man, and was practised here in imi- 
tation of a former custom of the English, in burning 
annually effigies of the Pope, the Devil, and the 
Pretender. 



262 Notes. 

44 In almost every case of effigy burning, that of 
the Devil was associated with the mortal offender. 
Thus, when in 1765 a mob in New York burned 
the effigy of Lieutenant-Governor Cadwallader 
Colden, they placed an image of the Devil, with 
a boot in his hand, by his side. The boot (used 
also in caricatures of that period) was a representa- 
tion of the Earl of Bute, mentioned in Note 7, 
Canto I., because of a similarity in the orthoepy. 

45 William Tryon had figured as an oppressor, 
from 1768 to 1771, in North Carolina, where a 
party calling themselves Regulators, in the west- 
ern part of the State, raised the standard of rebel- 
lion. He became governor of New- York, and held 
that office when the war broke out. Like other 
royal governors, he was compelled to yield to 
popular indignation, and he retaliated as a mili- 
tary leader. We shall meet him again. 

45 Joseph Galloway was an influential and very 
popular Whig leader in Pennsylvania at the com- 
mencement of troubles. He had worked shoulder 
to shoulder with Dr. Franklin in the Pennsylvania 
Assembly against the Proprietaries, and was a 
member of the First Continental Congress in 1774. 
After a while, when there appeared no chance for 
reconciliation with Great Britain, he wavered ; 
and in 1776 he abandoned the Whigs, wrote much 
against them, and became one of the most violent 
and proscriptive Loyalists of the time. He joined 
the royal army in New York, and from thence he 



Notes. 263 

went to England in 1778, where he remained until 
his death in 1803. Just before his escape, a 
trunk was put on board a vessel in the Delaware, 
directed to Joseph Galloway, Esq. It contained 
only, as Shakspeare says, 

" A halter gratis, and leave to hang himself." 

His examination before the House of Commons 
was a remarkable episode in the history of that 
period. He was in continual correspondence with 
Loyalists in America for many years, upon sub- 
jects connected with the war. His estate in 
Pennsylvania, valued at $200,000, was confiscated ; 
but a greater portion of it was afterward restored 
to his daughter, it having been originally derived 
from his wife. 

47 Mainprize, in law, is a writ directed to a 
sheriff, commanding him to take sureties for the 
prisoner's appearance, and to let him go at large. 
The allusions in this sentence are to the retreat of 
the British, after the skirmishes at Lexington and 
Concord. The minute-men, concealed behind 
stone-walls, bushes and buildings, galled them ter- 
ribly. A greater part of the loss of the enemy 
on that day occurred from this mode of warfare. 

48 It was a favorite method of the royal officers, 
when speaking of the " rebels," or in making 
propositions to them, to say, " The door of mercy 
is shut," or " it will soon be shut," and " Vengeance 
shall sleep no more." 



264 N O T E S . 

49 Dagon, the chief idol-god of the Philistines, 
represented with the body of a man, and the tail 
of a fish. 1 Samuel v. 1-5. 

50 The Tory clergy always spoke of the king as 
The Lord's Anointed. 

51 Joshua, chapter vi. 

52 When the people had fairly lifted the arm of 
open resistance, they would not acknowledge the 
king as ruler in any form. Henry Laurens boldly 
asserted his independence in this particular, even 
while a state prisoner, on a charge of treason, in 
the Tower of London, in 1781. He was at first 
treated very rigorously, but the people of England 
became so clamorous because of the injustice, that 
ministers were very anxious to relieve themselves 
of the odium. He was offered pardon if he would 
ask it. He nobly refused, because he had done 
nothing that required pardon. Then the ministry 
procured bail for him, intending that his release 
from confinement, under that form of law, should 
be perpetual. When, in reading the form, the 
clerk of the court repeated the words, " Our sove- 
reign Lord and King," the prisoner immediately 
said, " Not my Sovereign," and refused to ac- 
knowledge George the Third as such. He was 
bailed, and then joined the commission to nego- 
tiate for peace between the two countries. 

53 Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 12. The Lapi- 
thae and Centaurs were hostile tribes of Thessaly. 



Notes. 265 

The latter, because always seen on horseback, were 
said to be half men and half horses. 

54 Bacchus was the god of Wine — the tutelar 
deity of inebriates — a personification of sensual 
indulgence. 

55 Pallas was one of the names of the goddess 
Minerva, as opposed to the wild war-god, Mars ; 
and she was the patroness and teacher of just and 
scientific warfare. She was the presiding deity in 
the Parthenon at Athens. 

56 Mars was the great god of War in the Greek 
mythology. 

57 Iris was the daughter of Thaumas and Elec- 
ta — Wonder and Brightness — and was the god- 
dess of the Rainbow. 

58 In this the reader will readily observe the al- 
lusions to the single combats of Paris and Men- 
elaus, as described by Homer ; and of JEneas and 
Turnus, mentioned by Virgil. Also of Michael 
and Satan; in Milton's Paradise Lost, Book VI. 

59 It was the fashion in New England at that 
time for Judges to wear swords, on the bench. 

60 Vulcan was the god of Fire, the great me- 
chanic of the Greek mythology. Mount Etna 
and other volcanoes were regarded as his forges, 
and, according to the legends, he made imple- 
ments of war for the old Grecian heroes. 

6i "The sword 



Was given him tempered so that neither keen 
Nor solid might resist its edge : it met 
12 



266 Notes. 

The sword of Satan with steep force to smite 
Descending, and in half cut sheer." 

Milton's Paradise Lost, Book VI. 

62 Milton's Paradise Lost, Book II. 

63 This idea is from Juvenal, Satire 15. 

64 Alluding to the large people described in 
Gullivers Travels, already mentioned, and to the 
popular belief that the Patagonians who inhabit 
the southern extremity of South America, were 
giants in stature. 

65 "And earth self-balanced on her centre hung." 

Milton. 

66 Aristophanes, in his Comedy of The Clouds, 
represents Socrates as hoisted in a basket. The 
object was to aid him in contemplation. 

67 The hatchel was an implement used in domes- 
tic manufacture to clean the coarser from the finer 
fabric of the flax, when preparing it for spinning. 
It was made of a piece of plank, with a large num- 
ber of iron spikes driven through, and standing 
upright and close together. Through them the 
flax was drawn by hand, and the tow was sepa- 
rated from the finer fibre. 

63 See Note 19, Canto III. 

69 At that time the barbarous practice of clip- 
ping off a part or the whole of the ears of crimi- 
nals was in vogue. It was called cropping. 

70 See Note 87, Canto I. 

71 Israel Williams was a member of the Massa- 
chusetts Assembly for many years, and became a 



Notes. 267 

Mandamus Councillor in 1774. That fact brought 
Whig vengeance upon him. Though old and quite 
infirm, a mob took him from his house one night, 
carried him several miles, and put him into a room 
with fire. They then closed the doors and the top 
of the chimney, and kept him there in the smoke 
several hours. On being released he was compelled 
to sign a sort of recantation, drawn up by one of 
his tormentors. 

72 Thomas Oliver, of Cambridge, who mingled 
but little in politics. He w T as the last Royal Lieu- 
tenant-Governor of Massachusetts. His house 
was mobbed on the morning of September 2, 1774, 
because of his refusal to resign his seat as Presi- 
dent of the Mandamus Council. They compelled 
him to make a sort of resignation in writing. 
Governor Oliver went to Halifax with the British 
troops, and from thence to England. He died at 
Bristol in 1815. 

73 See Note 59, Canto I. 

74 It is a curious fact, that the mobs in New 
England at that time always conducted their pro- 
ceedings after the prescribed legal forms, when 
they tried and condemned Tories. 

75 This was in retaliation and imitation of the 
outrageous conduct of Colonel Nesbitt, mentioned 
in Note 38, Canto II. Sometimes those who re- 
ceived a coat of tar and feathers were placed 
astride a rail, and were thus paraded through the 
town. 



268 Notes. 

76 The Jewish kings were "anointed" by the 
High Priest before they were crowned, by having 
perfumed oil poured upon their heads. Hence the 
cant of Tory clergymen at that time, in calling 
King George " The Lord's Anointed." To this 
day an allusion to the ancient practice is contained 
in the expression " By the Grace of God, King," 
&c. 

77 See Claudian's Gigantomachia. 

78 Enceladus was one of the Giants or Titans 
who warred against Jove. As he fled, Minerva 
flung the Island of Sicily upon him, when, accord- 
ing to the poets, his motions caused the eruptions 
of JEtna. 

79 Mai was the mother of Mercury. See Note 
24, Canto I. 

80 " A seraph winged ; six wings he wore, to shade 

His lineaments divine." 

Milton's Paradise Lost, Book V. 

81 The Gorgons were three sisters — Stheno, Eu- 
ryale, and Medusa^hosQ hairs were entwined with 
serpents, and they had wings of gold. Their 
hands were of brass, and their bodies were cov- 
ered with impenetrable scales. Their teeth were 
as long as the tusks of a wild boar, and they turned 
to stone all those upon whom they fixed their eyes. 
Chimera was a terrible monster, that vomited 
fire. It had the head and neck of a lion, the body 
of a goat, and the tail of a serpent. 

82 Plato's famous definition of man was, animal 



Notes. 269 

bipes implumis : " a two-legged animal without 
feathers." 

83 In ancient Rome, the union of two men in 
the same office was called a Duumvirate. Several 
kinds of offices were thus filled by two persons at 
the same time. 

84 Livy mentions the fact that an owl having 
been discovered in Rome, it was considered an 
omen of great evil. It was caught, taken from 
temple to temple, where lustrations were per- 
formed, and in great and solemn procession the Ro- 
mans conducted the ill-omened bird beyond the 
walls, and set it at liberty in the forest. 

85 Votes were frequently passed at town meet- 
ings in New England, with a view to prevent 
the augmentation of prices of various arti- 
cles, and to stop the depreciation of Continental 
money. 

86 A shell-fish which often adheres to the bottoms 
of ships at sea (as well as rocks and timber) in such 
quantities as to impede their progress. 

87 " I hear a voice you cannot hear, 

That says I must not stay." 

Ticknell's Ballad. 

88 In the debate on Lord North's first proposi- 
tion in Parliament, in February, 1775, to use co- 
ercive measures against the Colonies, the celebra- 
ted John Wilkes, then a member of the House of 
Commons, took a conspicuous part in favor of the 



270 



Notes. 



Americans. He declared that " a proper resistance 
to wrong was revolution, not rebellion," and pro- 
phetically intimated that if the Americans were 
successful in the struggle then commenced, they 
might, in after times, celebrate the Revolution of 
1775, as the English did that of 1688, when they 
drove the last of the Stuart kings from the throne. 



CANTO IV. 

1 The Tories during the Revolution, being not 
only in the minority, but more hated by the Whigs 
than were the British soldiery, were compelled to 
use great caution, and their secret meetings were 
held in cellars and other lurking-places. 

2 The great hall or council-chamber of evil 
spirits. A description of it, in Paradise Lost, Book 
I., is one of the most sublime creations of Milton's 
genius, and has been embodied by art, by the fine 
pencil of Martin of our day. 

3 In all New England cellars, bins are furnish- 
ed for vegetables in winter. They are generally 
about four feet in height, and form good places 
for concealment. 

4 — " His form had not yet lost 

All its original brightness, nor appeared 
Less than Archangel ruined." 

Milton's Paradise Lost, Book I. 



Notes. 271 

5 It must be remembered how the Whigs had 
just robed poor Squire McFingal in tar and 
feathers. 

6 See Note 6, Canto I. 

7 See Note 98, Canto I. 

8 Drunk on flip. See Note 5, Canto III. 

8 Tar is procured from the pine and fir trees, by- 
burning the wood by a close smothering heat. 

" To drive the deere with hound and home, 
Erie Percy took his way ; 
The child may rue that is unborne, 
The hunting of that day." 

Chevy Chase. 

11 John Malcolm was a Scotchman, who settled 
in North Carolina after the famous rebellion of 
1745. He was aid to Governor Tryon in 1771, 
when he went against the Regulators. [See Note 
12, Canto IV.] He afterward became a custom- 
house officer at Falmouth (now Portland), in 
Maine; and early in 1774, he was in a similar 
position in Boston. He was an insolent man. 
One day he struck a tradesman for an alleged 
insult, and a warrant was issued for his arrest. 
The constable pretended he could not find him. 
A mob gathered about his house, when he thrust 
a sword through a broken window and wounded 
one of them. They broke in, found him in a 
chamber, lowered him by a rope from a window 
to a cart, tore off his clothes, tarred and feathered 



272 Notes. 

him, and dragged him through several of the 
streets, with a rope around his neck, to Liberty 
Tree. From there he was taken to a gallows on 
Boston Neok, beaten, and threatened with death. 
In the course of an hour, he was conveyed to the 
extreme north end of the town ; and then, after be- 
ing bruised, and benumbed with cold for four 
hours, they took him back to his house. "What 
became of him afterward, is not on record. He 
was despised by both parties, and became equally 
malevolent toward Whigs and Tories. 

12 The rapacity of officials in North Carolina, 
caused a great increase in the taxes of the pro- 
vince during the adminstration of Governor Try on. 
The oppression was real — not an abstract princi- 
ple, as in New England. The people in the in- 
terior associated for protection, and as already 
mentioned, they called themselves Regulators of 
public affairs. In the spring of 1771, their opera- 
tions became open rebellion, and Tryon marched 
to subdue them with a strong militia force. The 
belligerents met on the Allamance, a tributary of 
the Haw, in Allamance County. While in oppos- 
ing battle order, Malcolm, Tryon's aid above 
mentioned, was sent with a flag of truce. Recent 
perfidy on the part of Tryon, made the Regulators 
reckless of the rules of war, and they immediately 
fired on the bearer. Malcolm took to his heels, 
and, as tradition avers, the buttons of his small 



Notes. 273 

clothes gave way in his haste. " He saved his 
life," however, and cared little for the ridicule. 

13 There is in the scene that follows, a general 
allusion to the appearance and speech of Hector's 
Ghost, in the second book of Virgil's iEneid. 

14 In 1715, a son of James the Second of Eng- 
land, who had been acknowledged king of that 
realm, as James the Third, by Louis the Four- 
teenth of France, set up his standard in Scotland, 
and caused a rebellion there. It was suppressed, 
and the Pretender, as the prince was called, 
escaped to the continent. In 1745, his son, 
Charles Edward, landed in Scotland, proclaimed 
his father king of Great Britain, and caused an- 
other serious rebellion. That, too, was suppressed 
the following year, and many of the Highlanders 
who were implicated came to America, and settled 
in the Carolinas, as voluntary or involuntary 
refugees. Among them was the famed Flora 
McDonald. This was " the last rebellion " al- 
luded to by the poet. 

15 " Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, 

Who stand upon the threshold of the new." 

Waller. 

16 iEneas was a celebrated Trojan warrior, 
whose adventures and wanderings form the sub- 
ject of Virgil's iEneid. 

17 Orpheus was a Greek poet, musician, and 

philosopher. His beloved wife Eurydice died, and 
12* 



274 Notes. 

the disconsolate husband determined to descend 
to the regions of Pluto, and attempt to induce the 
powers of the lower world to allow her to return 
to the domain of light. His music charmed all the 
gods of the infernal regions. His wife was re- 
leased, and allowed to follow him, on condition 
than he should not look back upon her until they 
had passed the confines of darkness. His impa- 
tience made him violate the conditions, and she 
was lost to him for ever. 

18 Erebus, in the old mythology, or Orcus, in 
the ancient Latin religion, was the region of dark- 
ness. They were the same as Hades and Pluto 
of the Greeks. 

19 Milton's Paradise Lost, Book xi. 

'-'° Milton's Paradise Lost, Book xi. Euphrasy 
is a genus of plant, sometimes called eye-bright. 
Rue is a bitter plant, and the two compounded, 
were formerly used in making eye-water to 
strengthen the vision. 

21 The general rising of all the colonies to re- 
sistance, after the meeting of the first Continental 
Congress in the autumn of 1774, is here alluded 
to. Each colony had its particular flag. 

22 The American Congress resolved, in the sum- 
mer of 1775, to invade Canada. An army under 
General Schuyler went down Lake Champlain ; 
Schuyler sickened and returned to Albany. Gene- 
ral Richard Montgomery took the command, and 
at the close of August, he appeared before St. 



Notes. 275 

Jobn on the Sorel, the first military post within 
the Canadian lines. He captured the fort and gar- 
rison, and pushing forward, captured Montreal, on 
the nothern bank of the St. Lawrence, on the 13th 
of November. Flushed with success, he pushed 
forward toward his grand destination, Quebec. 
He first besieged and then attempted to storm 
the city. The attack was unsuccessful, and there 
Montgomery lost his life. 

23 In the summer of 1777, Lieutenant-general 
Burgoyne, with a large force of British, Germans, 
and Canadian soldiers, and a horde of Indians, in- 
vaded New York by the way of Lake Champlain. 
He captured Ticonderoga in July, and pressing 
forward, reached Saratoga on the upper Hudson, 
in September. The Americans fortified Bemis's 
Heights near Stillwater, to oppose him. A hard- 
fought battle occurred. Burgoyne was driven 
back, and after another battle early in October, 
he was compelled to surrender his whole force of 
more than five thousand men. 

24 Before he crossed the Hudson, a little above 
Stillwater, Burgoyne was induced to send an expe- 
dition to Bennington in Vermont, to capture need- 
ful stores and cattle, for his provision had become 
very scarce. Five hundred Germans, Canadians, 
and Tories, and one hundred Indians, all com- 
manded by a German officer, composed the expedi- 
tion. Colonel John Stark, with the New Hamp- 
shire militia, met them in the town of Hoosick, a 



276 Notes. 

few miles from Bennington, and after a severe 
engagement, totally routed the invaders. This 
defeat was a very severe blow to Burgoyne. 

25 The British held possession of a strong fort 
on Stony Point, a small rocky promontory, jutting 
into the Hudson river a few miles below the lower 
entrance to the Highlands. On the night of the 
15th July, 1779, General Anthony Wayne led a 
choice band of soldiers to surprise the garrison. 
He was entirely successful ; and though severely 
wounded in the head, he wrote to Washington, on 
the ramparts, at two o'clock in the morning, " The 
fort and garrison, with Colonel Johnson, are ours. 1 ' 
It was one of the most brilliant events of the war. 

215 After being driven before the British host, 
across New Jersey, Washington and his handful 
of half-starving, half-naked troops, stood shivering 
in cold December, on the Pennsylvania shores of 
the Delaware, opposite Trenton. A detachment 
of Hessians, under Colonel Ball, occupied that 
post. Christmas day approached. Washington 
knew full well that the Germans would have a 
carouse on that day, and therefore would be 
weaker and less guarded than usual. On Christ- 
mas night he crossed the Delaware in boats, in 
the midst of floating ice, eight miles above Tren- 
ton, and early in the morning, fell upon the Hes- 
sians while their commander was yet drinking 
with boon companions. The Hessians were cap- 
tured, and were taken across the river as prison- 



Notes. 27- 

ers. This bold and brilliant stroke alarmed the 
British, and gave new courage to the desponding 
Americans. 

27 Encouraged by his success at Trenton, Wash- 
ington resolved to act on the offensive. He crossed 
the Delaware and took post at Trenton. Cornwal- 
lis marched against him from Princeton ten miles 
distant, leaving Colonel Mawhood in command of 
a detachment there. Cornwallis encamped on one 
side of a small stream, opposite the American 
army, on the evening of the 2d of January, 1777, 
intending to make an easy capture of the " rebels " 
in the morning. During the night, Washington 
secretly withdrew ; and at dawn, while Cornwallis 
was rubbing his opening eyelids, he heard the 
booming of Washington's cannon at Princeton. 
At first he thought the sound was thunder ; he 
was soon undeceived. The Americans, after a 
severe skirmish at Princeton, defeated and routed 
Mawhood, who was greatly applauded for his skill 
in escaping with two hundred men. Cornwallis 
came to his assistance, but Washington had hasten- 
ed forward, and was soon far beyond his reach in 
the hill- country of the Jerseys. 

28 In September, 1777, the Americans under 
Washington, had a severe battle with the British 
under Howe and Cornwallis, on the Brandy wine 
Creek, in lower Pennsylvania, and were defeated 
with much loss. The British also suffered much 
loss on that occasion. Not long afterward (early 



278 Notes. 

in October) there was a severe battle at German- 
town, in which the Americans and British lost 
many men ; and during that month and November, 
many more were slain at forts Mifflin and Mercer, 
on the Delaware, a little below Philadelphia. 
These events are alluded to by the poet. 

" 9 This phraseology reminds us of the following 
passage in Milton : 

" Have ye chosen this place, 
After the toils of battle, to repose 
Your wearied virtue ; for the ease ye find 
To slumber here, as in the vales of heaven ? " 



30 See Note 24, Canto II. 

31 The Scotch Highlanders in North Carolina, 
already mentioned in Note 14, Canto IV, were 
generally Loyalists, and at the commencement of 
1776, they were organized, enrolled, and armed for 
the royal cause, under Donald McDonald, who 
was commissioned a brigadier-general by Martin, 
the royal governor. McDonald set up his stand- 
ard at Cross Creek (now Fayetteville), and pre- 
pared for conflict. The patriot militia of neigh- 
boring districts under Carroll, Moore, and Lilling- 
ton, marched against them. They met on Moore's 
Creek, in Hanover county, and on the 27th of 
February, a severe engagement occurred there. A 
great many of the Scotchmen were killed, many 
were made prisoners, and the remainder were 



Notes. 279 

routed and dispersed. Among the prisoners was 
the husband of Flora McDonald. 

32 In the autumn of 1780, Major Patrick Fer- 
guson, an active officer under Cornwallis, was sent 
into the mountain districts of South Carolina, to 
embody the Tories. Eariy in October, he cross- 
ed the Broad River into the Yorkville district, 
with about fifteen hundred Loyalists, and encamp- 
ed on King's Mountain. Several corps of Whig 
militia were united to oppose him, and attacked his 
camp there on the 7th of October. It was a 
bloody conflict ; Ferguson was killed, and his 
party were totally defeated, with great loss. This 
side-engagement was as disastrous to Cornwallis, 
then marching to invade North Carolina, as was 
that of Bennington to Burgoyne. 

S3 Three months after the victory of the Ameri- 
cans on King's Mountain, General Morgan gained 
another over Colonel Tarleton at the Cowpens, in 
the same neighborhood. It was a very brilliant 
affair, and still more weakened the power of Corn- 
wallis. Tarleton, who was an exceedingly active 
officer, managed to escape, closely pursued by 
Colonel William Washington. These two officers 
had a personal engagement during the pursuit, and 
Tarleton was wounded in the hand. Afterward, 
Tarleton was in the company of a witty Whig 
lady in North Carolina, and remarked in a con- 
temptuous manner, " I would like to see this Colo- 
nel Washington of whom you speak so much." 



280 Notes. 

c Had you looked behind you at the battle of the 
Cowpens, you might have seen him," retorted the 
lady. Having remarked to her sister, " I under- 
stand this Colonel Washington cannot write his 
name," glancing at Tarleton's scarred hand, the 
lady instantly replied, " You will acknowledge 
that he knows how to make his mark.'''' 

34 General Greene, who succeeded General Gates 
in the command of the Southern Army, was suc- 
cessful during the spring and summer of 1781, in 
gradually driving the British toward the seaboard. 
Marching slowly down the Santee, he fell upon 
the British at Eutaw Springs, on the morning of 
the 8th of September. A bloody battle ensued, 
in which neither party gained- an absolute victory. 
It was disastrous to both, but especially so to the 
British. Although they held the field at the end 
of the conflict, they immediately abandoned it, and 
fled percipitately toward Charleston. 

35 Fabius was a successful Roman general, and 
the great opponent of Hannibal. He was remark- 
able for his caution. He made many marches and 
countermarches, and would never be drawn into 
battle in a disadvantageous position. Because of 
this system, which in time always worked favor- 
ably, he was called " the delayer," and was much 
censured by the young and reckless officers. 
Washington pursued a similar course throughout 
the war, and with the same success ; yet he was 
often censured for his " Fabian slowness." 



Notes. 281 



S6 



An English philosophical writer of that name, 
carried the ideal system of Locke so far as to deny 
the existence of matter. 

37 This is in allusion to the oft-repeated asser- 
tions in parliamentary resolves, in speeches from 
the throne and the people, and in proclamations, 
that Britain was omnipotent. 

38 These two lines are omitted in the revised 
editions of 1820 ; and the last one preceding them 
was altered so as to read 

" Absent from home, or fast asleep? " 

39 The boast of British orators of that day. 

40 Thus British orators and writers alluded to 
Great Britain oftentimes with much display of 
pompous declamation. 

41 There was an English ballad, very famous and 
much sung at that time, in which Neptune (styled 
The Watry God) is made, with great deference, 
to surrender his trident to King George, and to 
acknowledge him as monarch and ruler of the 
ocean. A hundred years before, Waller wrote : 

" They that the whole world's monarchy design'd, 
Are to their ports by our bold fleet confin'd, 
From whence our red cross they triumphant see, 
Riding without a rival on the sea." 

And again, 

" Others may use the ocean as their road, 
Only the English make it their 'abode." 



282 Notes. 

42 See Note 47, Canto I. 

43 The Erse was the ancient language of Scot, 
land. See Note 5, Canto I. 

44 The old poets aver that Thetis, the mother of 
Achilles, desirous of making him invulnerable, 
plunged his whole body into the river Styx (the 
water that divides mortality from immortality), 
except his heel, by which she held him. Tradition 
asserts that he was finally slain by an arrow which 
penetrated his heel. There are various traditions 
and myths concerning this celebrated hero of the 
Trojan War. 

45 A kibe is a chap or crack occasioned by cold, 
or an ulcerated chilblain, as in the heels. 

46 Paris was a son of Priam, king of Troy, and 
was regarded as the cause of the ruin of his coun- 
try, as predicted by .ZEsacus, the soothsayer, at 
his birth. He seduced and carried to Troy, Helen, 
the beautiful wife of Menelaus, king of Crete. 
This outrage led to the siege of Troy, its fall, and 
the fulfilment of the predictions of iEsacus. Tra- 
dition relates that Paris hurled the fatal arrow 
into the heel of Achilles. 

47 Job, chapter ii. 

4S The poet here alludes to the popular scandal 
concerning the intimacy of General William Howe 
with the wife of Joshua Loring, the commissary 
of prisoners, mentioned in Note 91, Canto I. But- 
ler, in his Hudibras, says in similar words : 

'• The sun had long since, in the lap 
Of Thetis, taken out his nap" 



Notes. 283 

49 On Sunday evening, March 3, 1776, General 
Thomas, with two thousand men, and proper en- 
trenching tools, cattle and carts, went secretly to 
Dorchester Heights (now in South Boston), and 
there, in the bright moonlight, unobserved by the 
British in the city, they piled up huge fortifica- 
tions before the dawn, under the direction of 
Richard Gridley, a veteran engineer. At break 
of day, the breastworks were sufficiently high to 
afford ample protection to the Americans. Howe, 
overwhelmed with astonishment, exclaimed when 
he saw those formidable works, " What shall I do ? 
The rebels have done more in one night than my 
whole army would have done in a month ! " They 
had even done more than pile up the earth — they 
had placed cannons upon those mounds, and with 
these commanded the town and harbor of Boston. 
From that moment, Howe sought means for es- 
cape, and finally, through the wisdom and leniency 
of Washington, he was allowed to sail away for 
Halifax, unmolested, and followed by more than 
three thousand Loyalists, who dared not brave 
the indignation of the victorious Patriots. 

50 The Titans are described by the ancient poets 
as giants, sons of the earth, who rebelled against 
Jupiter, the supreme ruler of the universe. They 
heaped mountains upon mountains, in order to 
scale Olympus, on whose apex was the throne of 
Jupiter. They were driven back, discomfited by 
the thunders of Jove and the arrows of Apollo. 



284 Notes. 

51 Alluding to the hasty departure of the British 
from Boston, when Howe perceived that he could 
no longer keep it. Although Washington had 
tacitly consented, on the application of Howe, to 
allow him to depart unmolested, yet great terror 
pervaded the ranks of the enemy, and the house- 
holds of the Tories. They all went on board the 
ships on Sunday morning, March 17th ; and on the 
same day the deserted city was taken possession 
of by General Putnam in the name of the Thir- 
teen United Colonies. 

'■ This is an allusion to the cities of refuge 
among the Jews, in which, if a murderer or other 
criminal could reach before arrest, he was safe 
from punishment. The city of refuge here alluded 
to was Halifax, in Nova Scotia, to which the 
British army fled. 

: ' 3 This was the victorious army of Burgoyne, 
which, after capturing Ticonderoga and Mount In- 
dependence, gained a victory at Hubbardton, and 
destroyed the American stores at Skenesborough, 
now Whitehall, at the head of Lake Champlain. 
Then, flushed with these successes, Burgoyne 
marched slowly, but unimpeded by American arms 
through the wilderness toward the Hudson Kiver. 
The people of that region fled in terror, for they 
dreaded the savages who accompanied the invaders- 

54 The manner of " hiving " bees, to which this 
is an allusion, is mentioned in Note 8, Canto I. 

55 The rape of Lucretia, by Sextus Tarquinius, 



Notes. 285 

is given in the old legends as the proximate cause 
of the downfall of kingly power in Rome. The 
tragic result of the outrage caused Brutus to 
swear, by the pure blood which incarnadined a 
dagger with which Lucretia had stabbed herself, 
that he would pursue to the uttermost Tarquinius 
and all his race, and thenceforward suffer no man 
to be king at Rome. The aroused people gathered 
together, and passed a decree to the same effect, 
and Tarquin the Superb was banished. Such is 
the legend, which sober historians doubt. 

56 See Note 20, Canto III. 

57 This has reference to the death of General 
Eraser, during the first battle on Bemis's Heights. 
Fraser was a gallant officer, and was mounted on 
a splendid iron-gray horse. He was dressed in 
full uniform, and made a conspicuous mark. Colo- 
nel Daniel Morgan, commander of the celebrated 
rifle corps, perceived that the fate of the battle de- 
pended upon Fraser, and he ordered his riflemen 
to shoot him. As was afterward ascertained, a 
rifle-ball first cut the crupper of Fraser 's horse, 
and soon another passed through his horse's mane. 
Fraser's aid noticed it and said, " It is evident 
that you are marked out for particular aim ; would 
it not be prudent for you to retire from this place ? " 
Fraser replied, " My duty forbids me to fly from 
danger ; " and the next moment he fell, mortally 
wounded by a ball from the rifle of Timothy Mur- 



286 Notes. 9 

phy, one of Morgan's men, who took sure aim from 
a small tree into which he had mounted. 

5S " Loose his beard and hoary hair, 

Streamed like a meteor to the troubled air." — Gray. 

53 Judges xv. 15. 

60 After Burgoyne had surrendered his army at 
Saratoga, and the terms of the capitulation were 
agreed upon and settled, the prisoners, English 
and Hessian, started under guard across the coun- 
try to Cambridge. They commenced the inarch 
to the tune of Yankee Doodle, which they had so 
often heard in derision in the British camp. The 
pride of Burgoyne was dreadfully humbled by the 
whole affair. He had declared that he would eat 
his Christmas dinner in Albany, as a victor. He 
dined there sooner than Christmas, but as a pris- 
oner, although a guest at the table of General 
Schuyler, whom he had greatly injured, by causing 
his house, mills, and other property at Saratoga, to 
be burned. 

61 This allusion to Burgoyne's foppery is a very 
happy one, as the young men of fashion who com- 
posed the Macaroni Club had very recently pro- 
duced a great sensation in England. They were 
young men who had travelled in Italy, and had 
returned, bringing with them all the vices and 
follies which they had picked up there. They 
formed their club in London in 1772, and were 
particularly distinguished for their extravagance 



Notes. 287 

in dress, They wore enormous knots of hair be- 
hind, an exceedingly small cocked hat, an enor- 
mous walking-stick with long tassels, and jacket, 
waistcoat, and breeches, cut very close. Soon 
every thing that was fashionable was a la Maca- 
roni. Macaroni articles everywhere abounded, 
and Macaroni songs were set to Macaroni music. 
One song closed with this stanza : 

" Five pounds of hair they wear behind, 

The ladies to delight, 0, 
Their senses give unto the wind, 

To make themselves a fright, 0. 
The fashion who does e'er pursue, 

I think a simple-toney ; 
For he's a fool, say what you will, 

Who is a Macaroni." 

The word macaroni took the place of beau and 
fribble, which had been given previously to men 
of fashion. 

62 See Note 66, Canto II. Bellona was the ac- 
complished goddess of war. 

63 General Burgoyne was a natural son of Lord 
Bingley, and was not only a successful soldier, but' 
a polished gentleman. He was a brigadier in Por- 
tugal in 1762. He was afterward a privy coun- 
cillor, and when he came to America in 1775, and 
while a prisoner of war in 1777, he was a member 
of the British Parliament. His misfortunes here 
deprived him of the sunshine of the royal counte- 
nance ; and in 1780, after publishing his vindica- 



288 Notes. 

tion, he resigned all offices and their emoluments, 
and in 1781 joined the opposition in Parliament, 
in favor of the Americans. From that time until 
his death, in August, 1792, he was chiefly em- 
ployed in literary pursuits, in which he delighted. 

64 When setting out for America, Burgoyne 
playfully remarked that he meant to dance the 
Whig ladies to obedience, and their husbands would 
soon follow. In this, as in many other things, the 
British officers were disappointed. Howe and 
Clinton, and some of their subordinates, expected 
to " crush the rebellion " in a week almost ; and 
they actually brought fishing-tackle with them, to 
have some fine sport after the smoke of gunpowder 
had cleared away. 

65 Burgoyne's proclamations, like those of Gage, 
were very pompous. He was fond of making 
them, for he always delighted in the use of his 
pen. While in Boston, during the siege, he wrote 
a farce called Boston Blockaded, in which the per- 
son designed to represent Washington enters with 
uncouth gait, wearing a large wig, a long, rusty 
sword, and attended by a country servant with a 
rusty gun. Other American officers were simi- 
larly burlesqued. While this farce was in course 
of performance in the temporary theatre in Bos- 
ton, on the night of the 8th of January, 1776, a 
sergeant suddenly entered and exclaimed, " The 
Yankees are attacking our works on Bunker's 
Hill ! " The audience thought this was part of 



Notes. 289 

the play, and laughed immoderately at the idea ; 
but they were soon undeceived by the burly voice 
of Howe shouting, " Officers, to your alarm-posts ! " 
The people were dispersed in great confusion. 
The fact was, that Majors Knowlton, Carey, and 
Henly, three gallant American officers, had crossed 
the mill-dam from Cobble Hill, and had set fire 
to some houses in Charlestown, at the foot of 
Bunker's Hill, occupied by some British soldiers. 
They burned eight houses, killed one man, and 
carried off five prisoners. 

66 Matthew Prior wrote his Alma, the best of 
his works, while in confinement in the Tower of 
London. 

67 Sir Walter Raleigh wrote his famous History 
of the World, while confined in the Tower on a 
charge of treason. The first volume appeared in 
1614. 

68 John Wilkes, already mentioned in Note 88, 
Canto III, was a fearless political writer during the 
early years of the reign of George the Third, and 
for a long time he was editor of The North 
Britain. In the 45th number of that paper, pub- 
lished in 1763, he uttered sentiments considered 
libellous, and he was sent to the Tower. His ar- 
rest was proved to be illegal, and he was released. 
For several years, as editor, as alderman in Lon- 
don, and as a member of the House of Commons, 
he was considered a very dangerous enemy to the 

crown. Wilkes was a licentious, unprincipled 
13 



290 Notes. 

man ; and because he wrote an indecent Essay 071 
Woman, he was arraigned before the King's 
Bench, and, upon conviction, was expelled from 
Parliament. He afterward obtained a verdict 
against Wood, the under-secretarj of state, with 
$5,000 damages, and soon went to Paris He re- 
turned to England, was elected to the House of 
Commons in 1768, but was deprived of his seat. 
He became Lord Mayor of London in 1774, when 
he took his seat in the House of Commons, and was 
the friend of the Americans. He was afterward 
Chamberlain of London. Wilkes nourished but in 
the midst of agitation. When out of the troubled 
sea of politics, he sunk into obscurity, and died 
in the Isle of Wight, in 1797, at the age of 70 
years. 

69 General Prescott was twice made prisoner, 
during the Revolution. The first time he was 
captured at Montreal by Montgomery, near the 
close of 1775; and the second time he was seized 
in his rooms, while in command of the British on 
Rhode Island, in July, 1777, taken to the Head- 
Quarters of the American army, and afterward 
exchanged for General Charles Lee, who had been 
■ captured in New Jersey in December previous. 
Colonel William Barton, with a few men in whale- 
boats, crossed Narragansett Bay in the night, for 
the purpose of seizing Prescott, who was a petty ty- 
rant of the meanest stamp. He was taken from his 
bedroom, conveyed across to Warwick, and from 



N O T E S . 29I 

thence to Providence, and afterward to Head- 
Quarters. A full account of the affair, with a 
portrait of Barton and a picture of the house from 
which Prescott was taken, may be found in Los- 
sing's Pictorial Field Booh of the Revolution. 

70 Here again is an allusion to Burgoyne's farce 
of The Siege of Boston. The Maid of the Oaks 
was another farce from his pen, w T hich was much 
thought of, and was often performed in the 
English theatres. He also wrote a comedy en- 
titled The Heiress, which had great reputation. 
Some critics have pronounced it one of the best 
productions of the modern British drama. 

11 This refers to the cruelties toward prisoners, 
charged to Joshua Loring, the commissary. If 
the stories related of his inhumanity to those who 
fell into his hands were true, he was even worse 
than the detested Cunningham, the keeper of the 
Provost prison in New York. The Vampyre was 
a creation of superstition, a belief in which pre- 
vailed extensively among many nations in Europe. 
It was pretended to be a dead body, which arose 
from the grave at night, and sucked the blood of 
the living. 

72 "a place 

Before his e)'es appeared, sad, noisome, dark, 

A Lazai'-house it seemed Despair 

Tended the sick, busiest from couch to couch, 
And over them triumphant Death his dart 
Shook, but delayed to strike." 

Milton's Paradise Lost, Book XI. 



292 Notes. 

73 Murder was thus spelled in former times. 

74 Sir Guy Carleton was a very humane man. 
After the unfortunate attack of the Americans on 
Quebec, at the close of 1775, he treated the 
" rebel " prisoners with great humanity, and final- 
ly paroled them. 

75 It has been asserted, and not denied, that 
after the battle near Brooklyn, on Long Island, 
Howe and Clinton both allowed their troops, and 
especially the Hessians, to tie up American prison- 
ers and use them for marks to fire at. The excuse 
was that such treatment would keep the people 
from joining the rebel army, and thus the rebel- 
lion would be sooner ended ! " 

76 Among other measures to distress the people, 
great pains were taken by the British in New 
York, to communicate the small-pox throughout 
the country, and especially to the American army. 
At that time Jenner had just announced, in Eng- 
land, his great discovery of vaccination, but it was 
not practised in America until about the close of 
the Revolution. Inoculation was resorted to ; and 
while the army lay in*the Highlands in 1781 the 
soldiers were inoculated by companies. 

77 After the battles on Long Island and Fort 
Washington, where a great many Americans were 
made prisoners, the places of confinement on ship- 
board and in New York were crowded with the 
captives. Impure air and food soon caused a 
terrible mortality among them. They died by 



Notes. 293 

scores, and the disease known as the prison-fever, 
similar to that of the ship-fever of our day, be 
came apparently contagious. The British endea- 
vored to infect the American camp with the dis- 
ease. A multitude of Americans perished on board 
the old Jersey and other prison-ships in the har- 
bor of New York, and in the old sugar-houses in 
the city, which, being strong and large, were con- 
verted into jails. 

78 Judges, Chapter iv. 

79 Punic was the ancient language of the Car- 
thaginians ; and the contests in which the Romans 
and that people were involved, during more than 
three centuries, were called Punic Wars. The 
Carthaginians were so notoriously treacherous, and 
unfaithful, that the Romans made the expression 
Punica Fides — Punic Faith — synonymous with 
unfaithfulness to promises. 

80 Ammon or Hammon was the name given to 
Jupiter, as worshipped in Libya, in Africa. He 
is represented with the head and horns of a ram, 
because a legend asserts that when the army under 
Bacchus was in Africa, and about to perish for 
want of water, a ram appeared and guided them 
to an oasis where it was found in abundance. 
Bacchus erected a temple to Jupiter on the spot, 
and gave the impersonation of the deity the form 
above mentioned. The poet thought Loring a fit 
priest, because (again alluding to the unfaithfulness 
of the commissary's wife) the Libyan Ammon 
wore horns. 



294 Notes. 

81 Bel or Baal was an ancient Chaldean idol, 
mentioned by both Isaiah and Jeremiah. Baal is 
also mentioned in the Book of Numbers, Judges, 
and Kings. It is said to have devoured enormous 
quantities of food daily, which the people supplied, 
and which, of course, the priests and their friends 
consumed. 

J2 Moloch was the chief idol of the Ammonites, 
in Canaan, and is mentioned in the eleventh chap- 
ter of 1 Kings. The idol was made of brass, 
seated on a throne of the same metal, with the 
head of a calf, and a crown on it. Parents often 
sacrificed their children to this divinity. It was 
heated by fire beneath, and when the children 
were put into its hot brazen arms, they rolled into 
the idol and were consumed. Bullocks and other 
animals were also offered to Moloch in sacrifice. 
• 83 See Rabelais's history of the Griant Gar- 
gantua. 

84 Jonah, Chapter i. 

83 Genesis, Chapter xli. 

86 This sentence refers to the alleged cruelties 
of Lord Clive (who was governor first of Fort St. 
David, and then of Bengal in the East Indies) 
toward the native inhabitants, whom, as military 
commander, he conquered. By his exploits he 
gained the title of Omrah of the Mogul Empire, 
an Irish peerage and immense wealth. He re- 
tired to England in 1767, and in November, 1773, 
he committed suicide by cutting his throat. The 



Notes. 295 

" Black Hole " referred to, was a dungeon in Cal- 
cutta, where, on the 20th of June, 1756, the Na- 
bob or chief man confined one hundred and forty- 
six British gentlemen — merchants and others in 
the service of the East India Company, in a room 
only eighteen feet square. The heat, crushing, 
and stench of the dungeon, caused the death of 
one hundred and twenty-three of the prisoners be- 
fore morning. It was the Provost prison (now 
Hall of Records) in New York, and especially the 
sugar house in Liberty street, and the Jersey 
prison ship, which the poet here alludes to in the 
comparison. 

87 The various districts of the East Indies were 
governed by wealthy subordinate rulers called 
Nabobs. It has become a term significant of a 
very wealthy man. 

8S In the latter part of his life Lord Clive con- 
ceived himself haunted by the ghosts of those per- 
sons in the East, who were the victims of his inhu- 
manity. Notwithstanding the alleged cruelties 
of Clive were not doubted by the British nation, 
the then corrupt Parliament, ibefore whom he was 
accused, awarded him a vote of thanks for his ser- 
vices in the East Indies. But 

"Conscience makes cowards of us all." 

89 These three commanders were famous during 
portions of the war, for their marauding services. 
?0 Judges, Chapter xv. 



296 N O T E S . 

91 We have already referred to the ravages of 
Tryon and others on the New England coasts, 
and to the operations of Lord Dumnore in Virginia. 
In South Carolina, likewise, many negroes were 
taken from the plantations, by marauding parties, 
and those who did not perish were sent to the 
West Indies and sold. And every where, espe- 
cially during the earlier years of the war, before 
the opportunities which the Americans obtained 
for retaliation had taught the British and Hessian 
troops circumspection, they committed the most 
outrageous crimes. 

* 2 The King and Parliament were both long de- 
ceived by the reports of expected aids from the 
Tories sent over by the military commanders here. 
Indeed, it was believed by the ministry, even as 
late as the time of the capture of Burgoyne, that 
the whig party was a very small one, and that the 
great body of the people of the colonies were loyal, 
when fear of the violent patriots would allow them 
to be so. The fact was the reverse of this. 

93 In February, 1778, Lord North proposed in 
parliament, a conciliatory plan, which, he thought, 
would end all difficulties with the colonies. He 
proposed to repeal all obnoxious acts of parlia- 
ment, if the Americans would rescind their Dec- 
laration of Independence, and return to the loyalty 
of loving colonists. The proposition was in the 
form of two bills. These bills arrived in America 
about the middle of April. They were looked 



Notes. 



297 



upon with suspicion, and were called " deception- 
ary bills." Congress refused to accede to the 
terms offered in these bills, because the independ- 
ence of the colonies was not guarantied. Com- 
missioners to negotiate with Congress, in accord- 
ance with North's proposition, arrived in June. 
They were the Earl of Carlisle, George Johnstone, 
formerly governor of West Florida, and William 
Eden, a brother of the then late governor of Mary- 
land. They were accompanied by the eminent 
Adam Ferguson, as secretary. The proceedings 
of Congress, before the arrival of the Commis- 
sioners, had barred the door effectually to all 
negotiations, and they found their " occupation 
gone." 

94 " medicatam frugibus offam." See 

an account of the descent of iEneas into hell, in 
Virgil's iEneid, Book vi. 

95 When the commissioners found they could do 
nothing officially, Johnstone determined to try the 
power of money and place, by offering such bribes 
to public men. Because of his notoriously cor- 
rupt conduct, the Congress declared that no inter- 
course should be had with him. Yet he persisted, 
flattering some and boldly approaching others with 
promises of royal favor. 

96 rpk e a petticoated politician " here alluded to, 
was an American lady, daughter of Dr. Thomas 
Graeme of Pennsylvania, and then the wife of 
Hugh Ferguson, a relation of the secretary of the 

13* 



298 Notes. 

commissioner. Her husband being in the British 
service, she was much in the company of Loyalists. 
Being a woman of superior attainments, and ac- 
quainted with many leading men in Congress, 
Johnstone succeeded in making her an unconscious 
instrument of his corrupt efforts. He first spoke to 
her warmly in favor of American interests, and she 
believed him to be a true friend of her country. 
He expressed a strong desire to stop the effusion 
of blood, and intimated that, if a proper representa- 
tion could be made to leading men in Congress, a re- 
conciliation might yet be effected. Her womanly 
sympathies were aroused, and Johnstone, who was 
not permitted to go within the American lines, 
desired Mrs. Ferguson to say to General Joseph 
Reed that, provided he could, conformably to his 
conscience and views of things, exert his influence 
to settle the dispute, he might command ten thou- 
sand guineas and the best post in government. 
Mrs. Ferguson suggested that such a proposition 
would be considered as a bribe by General Beed. 
Johnstone disclaimed the idea; and, convinced of 
his sincerity and good will, she sought an inter- 
view with General Beed, three days after the 
British evacuated Philadelphia, and laid the pro- 
position before him. Beed afterward declared, 
that he at once exclaimed, " My influence is but 
small, but were it as great as Governor Johnstone 
would insinuate, the King of Great Britain has 
nothing within his gift that would tempt me." 



Notes. 299 

This attempt at bribery was soon made known 
to the public. The alleged reply of General Reed 
went from lip to lip ; the commissioners were every 
where denounced, and poor Mrs. Ferguson, the 
innocent dupe of a corrupt hireling, was accused of 
being a British emissary. She outlived all sus- 
picions, however. 

97 Benedict Arnold's services against his gov- 
ernment were actually purchased for ten thousand 
guineas and the commission of a brigadier in the 
British army. This was the stipulated considera- 
tion for the betrayal of the strong fortress at 
West Point and its dependencies, into the hands 
of Sir Henry Clinton, in September, 1780. He 
failed in his wicked purpose, escaped to the enemy, 
received his reward, and performed eminent ma- 
rauding services for his royal master, during the 
remainder of the war. Arnold had been a brave, 
skilful, and exceedingly useful officer before his 
fall. 

98 It was very fortunate for the Americans, that 
inefficient men like the brothers Howe commanded 
the British land and naval forces at the commence- 
ment of the Revolution. General Howe, in par- 
ticular, always moved slowly, and when he had 
gained a victory, he almost always lost the advan- 
tages of it by supineness. Such was the case after 
his victory near Brooklyn. The really captive 
army of Washington within the American lines, 
escaped to New York, while Howe was sleeping ; 



3<x> Notes. 

and yet, for his victory on that occasion, he was 
knighted and became Sir William Howe. He re- 
mained in Philadelphia after he had captured it 
in the autumn of 1777, for many months, with a 
well-provisioned and well-furnished army, while 
the half-starved, half-clad, and feeble force of the 
Americans were shivering and famishing at Valley 
Forge, only twenty miles distant. Yet he made 
no attempt at what might have been an easy cap- 
ture of the whole. His idle army in the city be- 
came greatly weakened by inactivity and dissipa- 
tion. Dr. Franklin justly observed, " Howe has 
not taken Philadelphia; Philadelphia has taken 
Howe." The acute Colonel Hamilton, young as 
he was, said to General Washington, when that 
officer was regretting his failure in capturing 
Howe, — " For my part I am glad of it, for Great 
Britain might have sent a more active man in his 
place." 

99 The Continental Congress held its session at 
York, Pennsylvania, while the British held posses- 
sion of Philadelphia during the winter and spring 
of 1778. In May, after being honored by a re- 
markable fete called Mischianza, in the prepara- 
tion of which the unfortunate Major Andre was 
the principal actor, General Howe resigned the 
command of the army to Sir Henry Clinton and 
returned to England. He was severely censured 
by Burgoyne and other military men, and some 
spicy correspondence, statements, &c, ensued. 



Notes. 301 

Howe was a good-natured, full-fed, heavy, indolent 
man — " the most indolent of mortals," according 
to General Charles Lee, who averred that he 
" never took pains to examine the merits or de- 
merits of the cause in which he was engaged." 
Howe published a narrative of his campaigns in 
America, the style of which partakes largely of 
the sluggishness of his character. He died 
in 1814. 

100 This was Sir Henry Clinton. He was grand- 
son of Francis, sixth Earl of Lincoln, and was 
Knight of the Bath. He came to America just 
before the Battle of Bunker Hill, and remained 
until near the close of the war. Clinton was quite 
an active officer, yet not a very skilful one. Soon 
after his return home, he published a narrative of 
his campaigns in 1781-83, which Lord Cornwallis, 
another of the British commanders here, thought 
it necessary to answer. To this Clinton made a 
reply. Clinton was Governor of Gibraltar in 
1795, and the same year he was elected a member 
of parliament. He died the following year. 

101 Soon after taking command of the British 
army in America, Sir Henry Clinton was in- 
formed that a powerful French fleet, under the 
Count D'Estaing, was on its way, and would prob- 
ably block up and perhaps capture the British ves- 
sels in the Delaware under the command of Earl 
Howe, and thus secure New York. He immedi- 
ately resolved to evacuate Philadelphia and the 



302 Notes. 

Delaware, and hasten with army and fleet to New 
York. "With eleven thousand men and an im- 
mense baggage and provision train he started for 
New York, by way of New Brunswick. "Wash- 
ington, at Valley Forge, was on the alert, and 
commenced a pursuit of Clinton with a more than 
equal force. By the adroit movement of detach- 
ments, he compelled Clinton to change his course 
in the direction of Sandy Hook. 

102 Clinton was sore pressed by his pursuers, and 
the New Jersey militia greatly annoyed him on 
the flanks. Finally he was obliged to halt at 
Monmouth Court-House, (now Freehold, New 
Jersey,) change front, and engage in a general 
battle with the Americans. The enn-ao-einent com- 
menced quite early on Sunday morning, the 28th 
day of June, 1778. It was one of the hottest days 
ever experienced in that latitude. All day the 
conflict raged, and night only put an end to it. 
Both parties slept on their arms, the Americans, 
under Washington, intending to renew the battle 
in the morning. Clinton chose rather to avoid that 
necessity, and at midnight he silently resumed his 
march, undiscovered by the wearied and sleeping 
Americans. 

103 In his official dispatch to Lord George Ger- 
main, Clinton wrote : " Having reposed the troops 
until ten at night, to avoid the excessive heat of 
the day, I took advantage of the moonlight to re- 
join General Knyphausen, [the commander of the 



Notes. 303 

Hessians,] who had advanced to Nut Swamp, near 
Middletown." This dispatch caused a great deal 
of merriment in America, 4>r it was known that 
the event took place at about the time of new 
moon. Poor WilVs Almanac, printed by Joseph 
Cruikshank, in Philadelphia, indicates the occur- 
rence of new moon, on the 24th of June, and be- 
ing four days old on the night of the battle, it set 
at fifty-five minutes past ten. Clinton had waited 
for its setting in order to 

"Steal off on tiptoe in the dark." 

104 In his retreat, Clinton placed Knyphausen 
and his Germans in the rear. In fact during the 
whole time of service of the German troops in 
America, they were always used as shields to the 
British, and were made to perform those services 
in which honorable soldiers would not willingly 
consent to be engaged. 

105 The poet's allusion here, to the remarkable 
event recorded in the tenth chapter of the Book 
of Joshua, is very pertinent, and is elucidated by 
note 103. 

106 This refers to the treaty of friendship and 
alliance, formed between the struggling colonies 
and France, on the 6th of February, 1778. The 
Bourbon king of France had been secretly aiding 
the revolted colonies, by supplies of arms, ammu- 
nition, and money, ever since 1776, but unwilling 
to have an untimely rupture with Great Britain, 



304 Notes. 

all the transactions were so conducted as to have 
a commercial aspect in private hands. But when 
the success of the Americans appeared certain 
after they had, unaided, captured the powerful 
army of Burgoyne, the French king saw that he 
might then inflict a severe blow upon his old enemy, 
England, by acknowledging the independence of 
the colonies, and by forming an alliance with them. 
That measure was soon accomplished, and the in- 
telligence that, on account of that alliance, France 
had sent a powerful fleet to America, caused, as 
we have seen (note 101), the evacuation of Phila- 
delphia and the Delaware by the British land and 
naval forces. 

10T Pursuant toythe terms of the treaty of al- 
liance with France, the Count D'Estaing sailed 
from Toulon with a powerful fleet in April, 1778, 
and arrived off the Capes of the Delaware in July 
following. The British fleet had escaped to the 
safe anchorage within Sandy Hook, where the heavy 
French vessels could not reach them. After block- 
ading Howe's fleet there for a short time, D'Estaing 
sailed eastward, to aid the Americans in rescuing 
Rhode Island from the British. Off Newport, in 
August, D'Estaing and a fleet under Howe, which 
had followed him from New York, attempted to 
fight, but a terrible gale dispersed both fleets, and 
damaged them badly. 

108 In 1779, D'Estaing was sent to the West 
Indies with a powerful fleet, captured St. Vincent 



Notes. 305 

and Grenada from the English, defeated Admiral 
Biron in a naval engagement, and made prizes of 
a British ship-of-the-line, and several frigates, on 
the southern coast of the United States. He also 
assisted in the siege of Savannah, in the autumn 
of that year ; but, pretending to fear the effect of 
the autumn storms upon his fleet, he abandoned 
the siege ■when victory was almost in the grasp of 
the allies, and went to sea, 

109 Charles Henry, Count D'Estaing, was a na- 
tive of Auvergne, France. He was a famous sol- 
dier in the French service in the East Indies in 
1756, was made prisoner by the English, broke 
his parole and escaped. He commanded an ex- 
pedition against Grenada, He became a member 
of the Assembly of Notables in the French Revo- 
lution, and, being suspected of unfriendliness 
toward the Terrorists, he was guillotined in 
April, 1793. 

110 Francis Joseph Paul, Count De Grasse, was 
a native of France, and born in 1723. He was an 
active naval officer in the West .Indies, before 
coming upon the American coast, and afterward 
performed signal service in assisting in the cap- 
ture of Cornwallis and his army at Yorktown in 
October, 1781. He formed an alliance with an 
unworthy woman after his return to France, whose 
conduct embittered his life. He died early in 
1788, at the age of sixty-five years. 

111 The life and services of the Marquis De La 



306 Notes. 

Fayette, are too well known to every American 
reader, to need any special notice here. 

112 General Lincoln was second in command of 
the army under Gates, at the capture of Burgoyne. 
He was appointed to succeed General Robert 
Howe in command of the southern army, in 
1779 ; and in the spring of 1780, having been 
ordered by Congress to defend Charleston, the 
capital of South Carolina, at all hazards, he 
collected what force he could there, and sustained 
a siege, conducted by Sir Henry Clinton, Lord 
Cornwallis, and Admiral Arbuthnot, for several 
weeks. He was at leDgth compelled to yield, and 
on the 12th of May surrendered his army and the 
city to the victorious enemy. 

113 After the capture of Charleston, the British 
officers displayed an activity hitherto unknown to 
them, and Clinton left Cornwallis to take energetic 
measures for a complete subjugation of the whole 
South. Cornwallis himself marched up the Santec 
toward Camden ; another detachment under Colo- 
nel Cruger took possession of Fort Ninety-six in the 
south-western part of South Carolina, and another, 
under Lieutenant-colonel Brown, who, like Cruger, 
was an American Loyalist, took possession of 
Augusta, in Georgia. For a while, these two 
States were completely crushed beneath the heel 
of British power. 

114 This refers to the partisan corps under Sum- 
ter, Morgan, Marion, Pickens, Clark, Buford, 



Notes. 307 

and other bold leaders, but especially to the van- 
quished army of Gates mentioned in the next 
note. 

115 General Gates was sent to the South after 
the fall of Charleston, to rally the patriots and 
reclaim Georgia and South Carolina. He went 
with proud confidence of success, and in a night 
and early morning engagement with Cornwallis, 
near Camden, he was signally defeated, his whole 
army was dispersed, and he was compelled to be- 
come a flying fugitive with only a handful of at- 
tendants. General Charles Lee, (then in disgrace 
because of bad conduct at Monmouth,) who knew 
Gates well, said to him, on his departure, " Take 
care that you do not exchange your Northern 
laurels for Southern willows." To this the poet 
alludes. 

116 After the defeat of Gates, Cornwallis pressed 
forward into North Carolina, took post at Hills- 
borough, and really held military sway, even to the 
borders of Virginia, which, also, he included in 
his programme of conquest. 

117 This is in allusion to Arnold's marauding ex- 
peditions in Virginia. He sent off several cargoes 
of negroes and tobacco (the fruits of his plunder) 
to the West Indies, and sold them for his own 
profit. 

118 Admiral Lord Rodney, having been unsuc- 
cessful in attempting to recapture St. Vincent 
from the French, in 1781, sailed for the Dutch 



308 Notes. 

island of St. Eustatius, where there was au im- 
mense amount of goods, belonging to people of 
several nations, neutrals as well as belligerents, 
because it was a free island. The Governor had 
not heard of the commencement of hostilities be- 
tween Great Britain and Holland, and being un- 
prepared, made no defence. The value of the 
capture was immense. Two hundred and fifty 
vessels, some with rich cargoes, were taken, and 
goods valued at three millions of pounds sterling 
were seized. This capture of property belonging 
to subjects of neutral nations, and the general 
seizure and sale of private as well as public pro- 
perty for the benefit of the captors, was truly an 
insult to the laws of nations. 

119 In allusion to Tryon's marauding expeditions 
already referred to. 

120 After the defeat of Gates near Camden, in 
August, 1780, General Nathaniel Greene was ap- 
pointed to the command of the Southern army. 
He soon gathered a considerable force, took post 
at Cheraw on the east, and on the Broad River on 
the west, and prepared to reclaim the Carolinas. 
He was, however, compelled to flee before Corn- 
wallis to Virginia, early in 1781. Greene re- 
mained in Virginia only long enough to refresh 
his troops and receive recruits, when he again 
entered North Carolina. The decisive battle at 
Guilford Court-House, in which Cornwallis was 
victor, so far as maintaining the field was con- 



Notes. 309 

cerned, occurred in March. " Another such vic- 
tory," said Charles Fox in the House of Commons, 
" will ruin the British army." It was disastrous 
to Cornwallis, and he hastened with the remains 
of his army to Wilmington, near the seaboard, 
and then pushed forward into Virginia, where 
Benedict Arnold, the traitor, was marauding. 

121 During the spring and summer of 1781, 
Greene swept every vestige of British power from 
the interior of the Carolinas, and drove the enemy 
toward the coast. Outposts, forts, encampments, 
depots, all were captured or broken up, and the 
lost South was almost completely regained. When, 
in October, Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, 
the British in South Carolina were confined to 
Charleston, and those in Georgia were hemmed 
within the narrow limits of Savannah and its im- 
mediate vicinity. 

192 After in vain attempting to overrun and sub- 
due Virginia, Cornwallis, close pressed by La 
Fayette, Wayne and Steuben, slowly retired sea- 
ward ; and, pursuant to orders from General Clin- 
ton, to be prepared to come to his aid at New 
York, if necessary, he crossed the James River 
and took post at Portsmouth, opposite Norfolk. 
Disliking that situation, he entered the Chesapeake 
Bay, and going up York River, commenced forti- 
fying the village of York, and Gloucester Point, 
opposite. There he constructed heavy fortifications, 
and seemed to defy the power of the Americans. 



310 Notes. 

123 Wh^ General Clinton heard of the march of 
the allied armies southward, he sent Admiral 
Graves to assist Cornwallis. But the Count De 
Grasse, who had just arrived with his fleet from 
the ^Yest Indies, was already in Lynn Haven Bay, 
within the capes, and Graves could not enter York 
River. After the two fleets had a slight combat 
just outside the mouth of the Chesapeake, Graves 
withdrew. 

104 Count Rochambeau, the commander-in-chief 
of the French army in America, joined Washing- 
ton on the Hudson, a few miles above New York, 
in the summer of 1781. After deceiving Clinton 
into the belief that they intended to attack him 
in New York, the allied armies made rapid 
marches southward, at the suggestion of La 
Fayette, who was watching Cornwallis there. 
They arrived at "Williamsburgh, a few miles from 
Yorktown, twelve thousand strong, on the 28th of 
September, and made immediate preparations to 
attack the invader. 

125 After the capture of Burgoyne at Saratoga, 
m 1777, to Burgoyne an army, was a favorite ex- 
pression in America, when alluding to a total and 
complete capture. 

126 According to Ovid, in his Metamorphoses, 
Cadmus, the founder of Grecian Thebes, wish- 
ing to sacrifice to the gods a cow which he had 
followed to the spot, by command of the Delphic 
Oracle, he sent to a fountain for water. It was 



Notes. 311 

guarded by a serpent, which he afterwards killed. 
By direction of Minerva, he sowed its teeth, and 
instantly a crop of armed men started up from the 
ground, five of whom assisted him in building 
Thebes. 

127 Fnding his fortifications to be gradually 
crumbling under the terrible blows of the allied 
besiegers, Cornwallis sought shelter for himself 
and army, by flight. He determined to cross the 
York river, break through the French troops on 
the other side, and make forced marches toward 
New York. Just as a part of his troops were 
embarked a sudden tempest arose, and they were 
driven back. Cornwallis was foiled, and saw no 
alternative but surrender or destruction. 

128 Yorktown stands upon a high bluff of rock 
marl, making the shore of the York river, very 
precipitous. At the foot of this bank Cornwallis 
had an excavation made, in which, secure from 
the rage of battle above, he held councils with his 
officers. That excavation has now disappeared, 
but another made since, was shown to visitors, at 
a shilling a-piece, as the identical one, when the 
writer visited Yorktown a few years ago. 

129 Driven to extremities, and despairing of aid 
from General Clinton, Cornwallis offered to nego- 
tiate for a surrender of his whole army. It was 
done, and in the presence of a vast concourse of 
people assembled from the country, and before 
the allied armies, the sword of ' Cornwallis was 



312 Notes. 

delivered by General O'Hara to General Lincoln, 
and the whole array laid down their arms, on the 
19th of October, 1781. The shipping in the 
river — every thing — became spoils of victory. 
The whole number of persons surrendered, was a 
little more than seven thousand. 

130 rjpk e "Virginia Loyalists, and those who had 
accompanied Cornwallis from North Carolina. 

131 Edicts issued by the popes were called Bulls, 
from the seal {bulla) attached to them. These 
seals were made of metals and wax. The cele- 
brated " golden bull " of the Emperor Charles the 
Fourth, was so called because the seal was made 
of gold. 

132 The British commanders, and especially 
Cornwallis, had proclaimed full protection to the 
Loyalists, on all occasions. There were about 
fifteen hundred Tories with Cornwallis at York- 
town. All the favor he asked for them, on his 
surrender, was that a vessel might be provided to 
carry away the most obnoxious, who were afraid 
to meet the resentment of the Whigs. 

133 Genesis, Chapter iv. 



is* " From his horrid hair, 

Shakes pestilence and war." 



Milton. 



135 We have before alluded to the often re- 
peated assurances in British proclamations, that 



Notes. 



313 



the " door of mercy is now open," and " the door 
of mercy will be shut." The poet seemed to fear 
that the hinge of that door so constantly swinging, 
might be quite worn out. 

136 The genius of America was generally repre- 
sented as a native female, in the scant costume of 
the aborigines, and head dressed with the long 
plumage of the eagle and other birds. Such a 
figure may be seen on the colonial pendant seals. 
" Tories dressed in plumes," is an allusion to their 
being tarred and feathered. 

137 Referring to the American flag. 

138 In allusion to Lord Mansfield's favorite dis- 
position of culprits, by transporting them into 
exile in some colony of Great Britain. 

139 King George the Third, and Lord North, his 
prime minister. 

140 In law, a writ to restrain a person from 
going out of the kingdom, without the king's per- 
mission. 

141 The description of Continental paper money, 
which here follows, is one of the finest examples of 
the sublime burlesque to be found in our language, 
especially when all its allusions are made plain by 
the light of history. 

142 The crutches called " Regulation " and " Ten- 
der," by which the specter was supported, were the 
acts of the State legislatures, in their attempts to 
prevent the depreciation of the Continental money, 
and to maintain its credit. Some of those acts 

14 



314 Notes. 

were for the regulation of the prices of commodi- 
ties, and the others were to make that paper a 
lawful tender, in payment for goods, or debts. 

143 On all the emissions of Continental Bills, 
there was printed the pledge of Congress for their 
punctual redemption, in the words, " The Faith of 
the United States." 

144 See Note 62, Canto IV. 

145 On the 22d of June, 1775, the Continental 
Congress resolved to issue bills of credit, or paper 
money, to pay the current expenses of the war. 
This was called Continental money. These bills 
were issued soon afterward, and new emissions 
were authorized from time to time, until the ago-re- 

' CO 

gate sum put forth represented two hundred mil- 
lions of dollars. Within a little more than two 
years after their emission, they began to depreciate 
in value, because the pledge, printed upon each 
bill, that Congress would pay gold and silver for 
them, could not be redeemed. In 1780, forty 
paper dollars were worth only one in specie ; and 
so rapid was the depreciation, that at the close of 
1781, they were worthless. They had performed 
a temporary public good, but produced much in- 
convenience, and even suffering, to individuals. 
To the worthlessness of this currency the poet al- 
ludes in speaking of the " Ghost of Continental 
money." 

146 Brazil in South America, is one of the chief 
sources from whence diamonds have been pro- 



Notes. 315 

cured in modern times. The allusion to Peruvian 
wealth, refers to the rich gold and silver mines — 
the richest then known in the world — discovered by 
the Spanish conquerors of Peru, as well as the im- 
mense amount of precious metals found in the 
temples, and in the palaces of the Incas or rulers 
of that country. 

147 Danas was the daughter of a king of Argos, 
who on consulting an oracle, was told that she 
would bear a son who would deprive the king of 
his life. To prevent this, the king shut her up 
in a brazen tower, with her nurse. Jupiter had 
seen and loved the maiden ; and under the form 
of a golden shower, he poured through the roof, 
into her bosom. She became the mother of Per- 
seus, by Jupiter, and the young man killed his 
grandfather, by accident. 

. 14S One of the most ruinous speculations of 
modern times, was the conception of John Law of 
Edinburgh, who, by remarkable shrewdness in 
financial schemes, became comptroller-general of 
the treasury of France. He proposed three 
schemes — a bank, an East India Company, and a 
Mississippi Land and Trading Company. The 
French ministry became enamored with his plans 
in 1710, and in 1716 Law opened a bank in his 
own name, under the Regent of France. Most of 
the people of property, and of all ranks, pur- 
chased shares in his bank and his companies, with 
the expectation of immense profits. His was de- 



316 Notes. 

clared a royal bank in 1718. The shares rapidly 
appreciated in value — upwards of twenty-fold that 
of the original — and in 1719, they were worth 
eighty times the amount of all the current specie 
in France. That great fabric of false credit fell to 
the ground the following year, and almost pros- 
trated the French government in its fall. Tens 
of thousands of families were utterly ruined. 

149 It is a singular fact that a scheme of specu- 
lation similar to that of Law's in France, had 
birth in England the same year (1710), and ex- 
ploded the same year (1720). A company was 
incorporated in 1716, under the name of the 
South Sea Company. The affair promised im- 
mense gains to the stockholders, and the shares, 
originally £100, raised to the enormous price of 
£1000 ! As in France, almost every person of 
wealth in Great Britain, became stockjobbers and 
speculators in the fatal scheme. The airy fabric 
fell in 1720, and ruined thousands of families. 
The estates of the directors, valued at £2,014,000, 
were seized in 1721. Mr. Knight, the cashier, 
absconded with £100,000, but compounded for 
£10,000, and returned. The success of Law's 
scheme in France, was the origin of the similar 
scheme in England. The papers and pamphlets of 
the time, contained many squibs during the pre- 
valence of the mania, and after the bubble burst, 
caricatures in abundance appeared, in ridicule of 
the whole thing. " Bubble-Cards " were used 



Notes. 



317 



by players, all bearing some appropriate verse, 
give one as a fair specimen : 

"A lady pawns her jewels by her maid, 
And in declining stock presumes to trade, 
Till in South Sea at length she drowns her coin, 
And now in Bristol stones glad is to shine." 

150 The infancy of modern chemistry, assumed 
the charlatan form of Alchemy, or the pretence of 
transmuting baser metals into gold. It was pre- 
tended that a certain powder, known to chemists, 
would convert base metals into gold ; and many 
men have wasted their lives in attempts to dis- 
cover this philosopher's stone, as that powder was 
called. At about 1782, Dr. Price, of Guilford, 
England, professed to have made the discovery, 
and carried specimens of his gold to the king, af- 
firming that it was made by means of a red and 
white powder. He was a Fellow of the Royal 
Society, and was required, on pain of expulsion, 
to repeat his experiments before a committee of 
that body. After some equivocation, he committed 
suicide by the use of poison, in 1783. The Phi- 
losopher's stone may be ranked with Perpetual 
motion, the Inextinguishable lamp, the Quadra- 
ture of the circle, and other impossibilities, which 
have puzzled and deranged the brains of other- 
wise sensible men. 

151 The name of Midas appears among the earli- 
est mythological legends of the Greeks, as king 



318 Notes. 

of a district in Thrace. One legend (to which our 
poet here refers), represents Midas as having on 
one occasion excited the gratitude of Bacchus, 
who desired him to ask any favor he pleased. 
Midas requested that whatever he touched might 
be turned to gold. It was granted. The myth 
doubtless illustrates the historical fact of an an- 
cient Phrygian prince, who became very wealthy 
by mines and by commercial operations. 

152 The Continental money, as here indicated, 
performed a vast amount of public good, during 
the first years of the war, notwithstanding its de- 
preciation, as we have said, fell heavily upon the 
great mass of the people. It carried on the finan- 
cial operations of the war ; and weak and faithless 
as it afterwards proved, it was the very sinews of 
strength in providing means for opposing the su- 
perior power of Great Britain, in the conflict. 

153 j n orc ] er to facilitate the depreciation of 
Continental paper money, and thus weaken this 
arm of patriotic resistance, vast quantities of 
counterfeit Continental bills were printed, and 
sent into the country from New York and Long 
Island. In Game's New York Mercury, April 
14th, 1777, appeared the following significant ad- 
vertisement : " Persons going into other colonies 
may be supplied with any number of counterfeited 
Congress notes, for the price of the paper per ream. 
They are so neatly and exactly executed, that 
there is no risk in getting them off, being almost 



Notes. 



319 



impossible to discover that they are not genuine. 
This has been proven by bills to a very large 
amount which have already been successfully cir- 
culated. Inquire of Q. E. D. at the coffee-house, 
from 11 A. M. to 5 P. M. during the present 
month." These counterfeits were sent into the 
country by cart-loads. Such was one of the dis- 
honorable modes of warfare, employed by the 
British commanders here. The younger Pitt, 
when prime minister of England, caused a large 
number of French assignats to be forged at Bir- 
mingham, to depreciate the currency of the French 
republic. Napoleon also caused forged notes of 
the Austrian Bank to be distributed throughout 
the Austrian Tyrol. 

154 Exodus, Chapter viii , verse 17. 

155 Portions of the shores of Great Britain are 
remarkable for cliffs of chalk, which may be seen 
at a great distance. For this reason, Caesar gave 
it the name of Albion. 

6 The common penalty for felony in England, 
was transportation to the colonies, and many left 
their country for their country's good. The idea 
of transporting the whole Island, was a grand am- 
plification in the mind of the poet. 

157 The superficial area of Lake Erie is greater 
than that of England ; while Lake Superior, the 
largest body of fresh water in the world, is 
twenty-two hundred miles in circumference. Eng- 
land might be placed in its centre, and its people 



320 Notes. 

could hardly spy the main from its shores. This 
couplet, however, drew down upon the head of the 
author very severe rebuke from the British press 
in after years. The poem was first published 
complete in America in 1782. Some years after- 
ward it was reprinted in London. In the mean- 
while Lord North, who was always near-sighted, 
had lost his sight entirely, and the critics unfairly 
imagined that these two lines were intended as a 
cruel insult. In a subsequent edition, the name 
of the king was inserted in place of that of 
North. A few years afterward, the king also was 
afflicted with blindness. So, to later readers, the 
unfortunate poet still appeared cruel. 

153 This refers to the confederacy of the Northern 
European powers against England, commenced in 
1780 by the Empress Catharine, of Russia. The 
ostensible object was to protect the rights of neu- 
trals in time of war — the real object was to crip- 
ple the maritime power of England. Catharine 
issued her proclamation in February. In the 
course of the summer, Prussia, Denmark, and 
Sweden, became parties to the policy declared by 
the Czarina, namely, that no port should be con- 
sidered blockaded, unless there was sufficient force 
present to maintain a blockade. In November 
the States-G-eneral of Holland joined the con- 
federacy. France and Spain also acquiesced in the 
new maritime code, and a general Continental war 
against England appeared inevitable. This was 



Notes. 321 

* 
called the Armed Neutrality. The scheme failed, 
however, because of a want of confidence in the 
faithfulness of the Empress. 

159 This was not uttered in a spirit of prophecy, 
yet how prophetic were the words, let current his- 
tory testify. Freneau, another poet of the Kevo- 
lution, seemed equally prophetic in his Rising 
Glory of America, written in 1775. He says : 

" I see, I see 



Freedom's established reign ; cities and men, 
Numerous as sands upon the ocean's shore, 
And empires rising where the sun descends ! 
The Ohio soon shall glide by many a town 
Of note ; and where the Mississippi stream, 
By forests shaded, now runs weeping on, 
Nations shall grow, and states not less in fame 
Than Greece and Rome of old ! " 

160 We can never sufficiently lament this sudden 
termination of the Vision, for it might have ex- 
tended far down the ages beyond our present experi- 
ence, and revealed future realities which have not 
yet become elements of our dreams. 

161 " either tropic now, 

'Gan thunder." 

Milton's Paradise Regained. 

16-2 The poet here uses a common phrase with 
the British officers during the war. Every officer 
who luckily escaped capture or destruction, de- 
scribed his retreat as having " been under the very 
nose of the enemy." 

163 In allusion to the fact that all obnoxious 
14* 



322 Notes. 



• 



New England Tories, when the places of their 
abode became too hot for them, hastened to Boston, 
and placed themselves under the protection of the 
British. M'Fingal, for his loyalty, and for his 
courage when out of the presence of danger, was 
as highly deserving of that protection, as his great 
needs, at that perilous moment, could claim. 

164 Genesis, Chapter xix. 

165 After the Americans had promulgated then- 
Declaration of Independence, the ministerial 
speakers in parliament, and writers in favor of 
the government, amused themselves by calling it, 
" The Phantom of Independence." The news- 
papers echoed the simile, and it was a favorite 
idea until it assumed a shape so substantial, in 
the progress of the war, as to make the word 
ridiculous. 

166 The hegira of M'Fingal, was a memorable 
epoch in the computation of the Loyalists. Epic 
poetry has scarcely a parallel in giving the grand 
catastrophe — the denouement of the story. We 
would gladly tell the reader more of the life of 
the hero — his sufferings in exile — his promotion 
in office — his safe denunciations of democracy 

»" under the very nose " of monarchy — but the re- 
spectful silence of the poet puts an injunction of 
secrecy upon the pen of the Annotator. 



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